La Trobe Financial Asset Management is now responsible for the $5.9 million Victoria Street complex of 15 residential units.

Work on the complex had been stalled for months amid legal battles between Mr Strom and several sub-contractors over money owed for work on the site.

La Trobe senior vice president Brian Ford told the Mercury the company had taken possession of the site on October 8 and was now assessing its viability.

"We have been working closely with the quantity surveyor and our legal representatives to obtain the required information ... to make the right decision for the investors and purchasers involved," he said.

He would not be drawn on whether buyers in the troubled block would need new contracts or when the work would be completed, with a decision "shortly".

The construction union inspected the Victoria Street site on Monday and is now hopeful the project will be finished.

CFMEU NSW branch official Mick Lane said he held "no practical hope" that the sub-contractors, owed thousands by Mr Strom, would ever be paid.

"We'd like to have that discussion [with La Trobe] but there's been no formal agreement," he said.

"Some of the sub-contractors are taking their own action so they'll perhaps be left out of the equation ... we'd just like to see the contractors offered work."

Mr Strom still owns Railway Land Holdings, which is the company behind the delayed Brompton Road housing development in Bellambi.

His other company, Lifestyle Property Development, went into administration on September 2, owing more than $650,000 to several Illawarra sub-contractors.

The company returns to court next week in the ongoing legal stoush with two sub-contractors over their unpaid debts.