Over time, that was whittled down to the 10 in the City Deal prospectus.

READ MORE: Four councils join forces to push for a better deal

Some have been around for a while, like the push to duplicate Picton Road to motorway standard and the South West Illawarra Rail Link (SWIRL) - the commuter-friendly version of the Maldon-Dombarton rail line.

Others have only come onto the radar recently, like the upgrade of the Nowra riverfront precinct.

But some of the 10 are brand new, such as the improvement of marine infrastructure along the coast and the development of a Kiama arts precinct.

RDA Illawarra Chair Eddy De Gabriele said it didn't matter than some of the projects had been on the agenda for a while. In fact, he said big-ticket items like SWIRL gained new life when looked at with the whole region in mind.

"I think the major project like SWIRL now become much more attractive because we're rusting on the other projects to SWIRL as well," Mr De Gabriele said.

"Packaging it this way now we're not only just talking about SWIRL or one particular project - we're talking about these 10 projects and we want to deliver on these things."

According to the prospectus the 10 projects would require $875 million. The councils themselves would chip in $47 million of that, with the state government bearing the brunt with $589.5 million.

Around $90 million was expected from private investors, including $30 million being spent on hotels in the Wollongong entertainment precinct.

The councils could have opted for a Regional Deal but Mr De Gabriele said they avoided that due to the confusion over the political definition of "regional".

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