Wollongong council's decision on Skydive the Beach's use of Stuart Park could turn into "another Gleniffer Brae", according to one councillor who says the wrong choice could push millions of dollars of investment out of the city.
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Liberal councillor Michelle Blicavs said the landing rights and building lease to allow skydiving in the beachside park should not be opened up to public proposals, as the risks of losing a "great local business" are too high.
In a recommendation to next week's meeting, council staff said councillors should continue to support skydiving in Stuart Park, but should call for public proposals for the activity in the interests of transparency.
The recommendation comes despite a series of risks, which included fears from council staff that the multimillion-dollar firm could relocate head office jobs and refocus its tourism campaign to the Central Coast if it is not successful in securing the Stuart Park lease.
Cr Blicavs said on Thursday she would push for councillors to negotiate directly with Skydive the Beach.
"This is a business which has proved itself over the years, and wants to build on community land and invest in something that could potentially be taken away from them after the end of their lease," she said.
"To me the risks far outweigh any view that this won't be a transparent process, and I think it's clearly transparent anyway because we're not trying to hide anything we're doing.
"This is potentially Gleniffer Brae all over again, and we could potentially be making the same mistake here as we made with that, where we lost out on a $40 million investment in the city and we will have more rundown buildings where we could have had something great."
Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said he had not yet made up his mind about which way the lease should be decided, but was curious to see if there were any other prospective skydiving operations who would like to set up shop in Wollongong.
Cr Bradbery said the risks outlined by council staff of going through a "public proposals" process rang alarm bells, but he was also keen to ensure the council followed the correct process.
"I don't think we're going to lose the business, but I think we need to make sure the people of Wollongong are sure that whoever does get across the line is the best operator," he said.
"I'm waiting to hear from the people who want to play in this space but at the present time I don't have a lot of people banging down my door to take on Skydive the Beach."
Labor's David Brown was also keen to strike a balance between a transparent process and supporting Skydive the Beach.
"I'm always keen to hear the debate, but I think the staff recommendation has probably got the right balance in protecting the broader community interest and the probity of dealing with an individual player in town," Cr Brown said.
"We need to be a little bit cautious about being seen to be too far in camp with a private player, as much as I think their proposal has got merit and I would still like to see if there are any competing proposals."