A prominent CBD hotel - which caught fire last year - has been identified as the second high-rise building in Wollongong clad in potentially dangerous flammable material.
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In a development application lodged with Wollongong City Council, consultants working for the Adina Hotel site, on Market Street, are seeking to replace combustible material on the exterior of the building with non-flammable cladding.
Similar cladding, blamed for the devastating Grenfell Tower fire in London which killed 72 people in 2017, has been shown to be rife in buildings across NSW.
A 2019 review by the NSW government revealed there were at least seven buildings in Wollongong affected, however both the government and Wollongong City Council have declined to release a list of these buildings.
The state claimed doing so would create risks for property prices and terror attacks.
"The possibility of an attack on a building that has been identified as having an amplified danger of fire is very real," NSW Planning's information access and privacy officer told the Mercury in making his decision.
"I consider this information to be commercially valuable to a building owner or manager because information of this kind can have an effect on the market value and the insurability and insurance premiums for a property."
As yet, only one other Wollongong complex has been revealed to be affected.
Last year, IRT lodged a similar development application to replace aluminium cladding on its multi-storey Links Seaside retirement complex over fears the panels are a fire risk.
Work to remove the potentially dangerous material was carried out this year, with the aged care provider taking a proactive approach and choosing to replace the aluminium panels without being ordered to by the NSW government.
In April 2019, about 90 people in the Adina complex were evacuated from the building, when the kitchen of one of the ground floor restaurants caught fire.
Market Street was closed for several hours while firefighters attended to the blaze. No one was harmed in the incident, but the restaurant remained closed for some time afterwards.
In the DA, which will be on exhibition until September 9, consultants from Aegis Engineering said the rectification works "have been carefully designed to achieve compliance while maintaining the original aesthetic of the building".
"The project aims to improve the safety of the building in the event of a fire, which has a positive impact on residents, neighbouring buildings and city users," they said.
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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.
