One of Wollongong’s most controversial development sites could soon be transformed by $90 million plans to build four residential towers on the vacant city-edge land bounded by Flinders, Keira and Campbell Streets.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
According to documents lodged with Wollongong City Council, Malaysian consortium Gateway Wollongong plans to build more than 200 apartments and thousands of square metres of commercial space on the triangular city block.
The site has a long and contentious planning history. It was once flagged for the corruption-laden "Quattro" development, which featured prominently in the city’s infamous sex for development scandal.
In 2008, an ICAC inquiry found that developer Frank Vellar had engaged in corrupt conduct by engineering the approval of the Quattro development with his lover, Beth Morgan.
The new plans, lodged by architects Edmiston Jones and planners TCW Consulting, would see four separate residential towers of seven and eight storeys being built.
There would be 221 units located above three levels of commercial space, which the applicants said would be “small scale” so as not to compete with nearby retail activity.
The complex, to be known as Gateway, would also have 330 car spaces for residents, visitors and commercial tenants, and an internal, landscaped, courtyard the size of two residential blocks.
The highest building in the complex, located at the site’s western edge, would rise just under 24 metres.
The plans replace the Malaysian company’s ambitious $135 million Bass and Flinders Gateway, which faltered in its early planning stages as it could not overcome serious concerns about its soaring 60-metre building heights.
Since 2011, the prominent site has been owned by Wollongong council, which “provided landowners consent” to the new application being lodged. The property is in the process of being transferred to Gateway Wollongong Pty Ltd, the plans said.
The Malaysian company has been in negotiations with Wollongong council over the site since at least 2012, with councillors voting that year to give the company first dibs on buying the land.
It remains unknown if the company and council have agreed on a price for the land, as all council meetings over the sale have been held behind closed doors.
Unlike its predecessor, the new proposed development will not take up the entire block and has been designed around the existing, privately-owned buildings on the triangular wedge of land.
The plans are on public exhibition until June 8, and will be assessed by the Joint Regional Planning Panel, due to their capital investment value of $88.4 million.
