The long-running saga of Wollongong’s so-called Regency Towers site looks likely to continue this year, with developers seemingly abandoning plans for a $66 million hotel complex.
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Australian and Chinese-owned company, Supomme Property Development, has lodged new plans for a 22-storey “shop-top” housing complex.
Worth about $43 million, the complex would have 151 units and 10 retail spaces, as well as 209 parking spaces and a childcare centre.
The new proposal was lodged with Wollongong City Council in late December and, as it is worth more than $20 million, it will be considered by the Joint Regional Planning Panel.
Detailed documents outlining the plans have yet to be made public through the council’s website, however it is understood the change of direction is due to the length of time it took for the hotel to be approved.
The Mercury was told the planned operator, Mantra, was no longer able to be involved in the project.
The now-to-be-shelved hotel has been on the cards for years, after it was first mooted by Wollongong developer David Shalala in the early 2000s.
Supomme has owned the site at 10-18 Regent Street since 2013, when it resurrected the hotel plans, which had toppled during the difficult post-ICAC and GFC development climate.
The renewed proposal would have been for an 18-storey, 4.5-star hotel and residential tower with 23 luxury apartments that would have sat atop seven levels of commercial office space.
The hotel would have had 144 rooms and 27 suites, as well as a restaurant, bar, conference centre and rooftop massage spa and infinity pool.
The fifth revision of these plans since December 2013 was approved by the JRPP in July last year, after drawn out negotiations between the council and developers.
Designed by Wollongong’s PRD Architects, the complex was an updated version of a 23-level tower approved by the council in 2009.
It is understood PRD is no longer involved in the project, after the developers chose to work instead with a Sydney based firm.
The hotel was tipped to bring more than $232 million of economic activity to Wollongong, including 200 construction jobs and 229 extra tourism jobs. More than 400 people would have been able to work in the seven levels of office space, and the hotel would have attracted 72,500 visitors a year, the plans said.
As the new plans have not yet been made public, it is unclear what the economic flow on effects of the apartment block will be.
The Regent Street site was once home to the Charcoal Tavern restaurant but has been bulldozed and excavated in recent years.
