For more than a decade, plans to redevelop the massive corner block that marks the northern entrance to Wollongong’s CBD have come and gone.
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But now, it looks almost certain that a proposal for 221 apartments and a number of commercial sites will be approved on the troublesome triangular site between Keira, Flinders and Campbell Streets.
Known as Parq on Flinders, the $88 million complex would have four separate residential towers of seven and eight storeys.
Apartments would be built around an internal, landscaped courtyard the size of two residential blocks.
The plans, lodged in February by Malaysian consortium Gateway Wollongong, are due to be considered by the Southern Joint Regional Planning Panel next week.
Wollongong City Council planning staff have recommended approval.
As the council is the landowner of the site, a peer review from Montgomery Planning Solutions has also been provided to the panel. The review says the council’s recommendation is “considered reasonable”,
For years, the huge development site was arguably Wollongong’s most controversial block of land.
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 council bought the site for $5.2 million in 2011, with plans to clean it up and use it as a temporary parking space.
It then called for expressions of interest from developers, and a year later the Gateway consortium, then working with developer Jan Lindrum, lodged an ambitious $135 million proposal named “Bass and Flinders Gateway”.
Despite comparing their project to the Sydney Opera House and Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, developers failed to convince the JRPP of its merits in 2014.
It faltered in its early planning stages as it could not overcome serious concerns about its soaring 60-metre building height and excessive scale.
The panel will meet on November 23 to make an assessment on the Parq apartments, some of which have already been sold.
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
