Sydney firm Leda Holdings has announced it will sell a large parcel of industrial land at Kembla Grange, bringing to an end its nine-year campaign to rezone the land for a factory outlet.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The property giant, which jointly owns the Wyllie Road land along with Total Recycling, had hoped to alter the site's "light industrial zone" to make way for a $110 million factory outlet and homewares complex.
Leda Holdings' development manager Gemma Wawn on Monday told the Mercury the decision to sell was made because it was "no longer viable" for her company to hold on to the land.
"We've given it that many shots now, and the ongoing holding costs on the land have just built up so much that it's no longer viable for us to keep trying to get it through the council," she said.
"We're disappointed, but there's only so long that you can keep going at these things."
The controversial proposal has been considered by Wollongong City Council four times in the past two years.
Council staff have repeatedly recommended that changing the zone was not in the wider public interest because it would deplete the supply of strategically important industrial land and affect jobs in existing retail centres.
The fourth and final push came from the factory outlet's strongest council supporter, Bede Crasnich, but went nowhere when councillors simply voted to "note a report" on the matter.
Ms Wawn initially said the company would lodge a new planning proposal to allow additional permitted uses, however those plans never came to fruition.
She said Leda's decision to pull out of its project had nothing to do with the recent opening of GPT's new Wollongong Central building.
"GPT is a different type of retail, [we would have built] that value-offering retail which is different to the specialty shops in Wollongong Central," she said.
Cr Crasnich said he was "a little gutted" that the factory outlet would not go ahead, as he believed it would have provided more than 1000 jobs.
But Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the pending land sale was good news for Wollongong, as it would pave the way for an "employment generating opportunity that fits within the appropriate zone".