Preparatory works have started on the site bounded by William Street, Lord Street and Church Street.

The developer is waiting on the final stormwater approval paperwork from Port Macquarie-Hastings Council for full construction to begin.

Building and development company Bloc is behind the luxury apartments and townhouses in the project named Galerie.

The north of the site will be home to an apartment building with 29 high-end two and three bedroom apartments.

Six large townhouses will front Church Street to the south.

The development will have a central courtyard and basement parking.

Bloc director Andrew Redwin said they had excavators ready to start digging as soon as the final paperwork was received.

"We have reached all the milestones from a financial point of view, sales point of view and construction point of view," he said.

The build is expected to take about 16 months.

Read more:

Sales were launched for the project early in 2020.

About half of the properties in the development are sold or under contract.

McGrath Estate Agents Port Macquarie's Todd Bates said there had been a pretty steady take-up of sales over the past few months.

"We've had a lot of people from Sydney and Canberra buying into the development but also a good mix of locals as well," Mr Bates said.

He said people had realised they didn't need to live in Sydney, for example, as they could work from home.

Four properties in the development were sold over the Christmas break.

What else is making news?

While you're with us, you can also receive updates straight to your inbox from the Port Macquarie News. To make sure you're up to date with all the news, sign up here. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.