Village Building Co has confirmed its acquisition of the Corrimal Leagues Club site, and flagged plans to begin developing the site as early as mid-November.
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The company inherited an active development application that allows for 60 apartments and six villas to be built in place of the once-popular club.
Kate Freeman, Village Building Co general manager sales marketing and communications, said the apartments would be built over two blocks, each four storeys high, including basement level.
The sale price has not been made public but the Mercury can confirm it fell short of eight figures.
Despite a financially challenging 10 years, the sale of the club caught many supporters off guard.
It was bought by a developer, J & J Hanna & Co Pty Limited, for $2.95 million in 2010. In 2013 the club was amalgamated into the Aster Group, which includes Wests Illawarra. According to property records, Western Suburbs Leagues Club Illawarra then bought the 8480 square-metre site from J & J Hanna for $4.4 million, in 2014.
The new owners invested an estimated $1 million in the venue and continued trading for three years, before calling for expressions of interest in July. On Tuesday Aster Group announced that the venue had closed, due to poor performance.
Ms Freeman said Village Building Co (VBC) intended to send representatives to a community meeting next week, where the development is to be discussed.
“We never intended there to be any secrecy around the developer; we were looking to respect Corrimal Leagues Club with informing their staff, so have deliberately given them a bit of space,” Ms Freeman said.
“We’re really looking to reassure the community. We understand that when you don’t have information it creates a lot of worry and concern, so we’re looking to work with the community, as opposed to against it.”
VBC is the developer behind Bulli’s Edgewood and The Brickworks developments.
In a statement, company CEO Travis Doherty said the company had a “strong history of quality developments in the Illawarra region”
“We look forward to continuing to our tradition of providing well planned, highly livable and environmentally responsible communities to the Illawarra,” he said.
Angela Thompson
Proudly Illawarra Mercury since 2008; these days covering crime and justice issues. UOW alum. Thrilled by the chase and sobered by some of the things I see and hear when I stand still - sometimes in the same day. ang.thompson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Proudly Illawarra Mercury since 2008; these days covering crime and justice issues. UOW alum. Thrilled by the chase and sobered by some of the things I see and hear when I stand still - sometimes in the same day. ang.thompson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
