A welfare and employment agency has revealed plans to build an 18-level mixed use development on the long-vacant Auburn Street site once earmarked for an Australian Technical College.
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An application submitted to Wollongong City Council by Employment Services Holdings last month indicates the $32 million development would house 116 apartments and three commercial levels, as well as parking for 93 cars.
Half the apartments would be allocated as "affordable rental housing".
According to the NSW government, affordable rental properties are designed to accommodate households with low to moderate incomes.
They can also house people who may be going through a change in their lives which affects their financial situation - such as having a baby, getting a divorce or leaving home for the first time.
Affordable rental housing is usually run by private providers and subsidised by the government, but is not the same as social housing.
The proposed Auburn Street development will include four levels of affordable housing and a further 10 levels of residential flats.
There will be 98 one-bedroom units, 11 two-bedroom units and seven three-bedroom apartments.
The complex will also include three levels of commercial and retail floor space.
The 2171 square metre site, comprising three blocks next to Wollongong railway station, has been awaiting development for more than a decade. The Howard government's original plan to build a technical college was axed when Kevin Rudd was elected in 2007.
The site was sold by the NSW Department of Education last year.
Before the plans for a college surfaced in 2006, the empty block - which once housed Civic Video - changed hands four times in five years and was approved for a 10-storey, 49-unit block, including a commercial shopfront.
The Employment Services Holdings development application is being assessed by council staff.
