A hotel, serviced apartments, new football stadium grandstands and an all-new Wollongong Entertainment Centre are part of an ambitious $500 million Business Illawarra proposal.
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As part of the masterplan, a 20-storey hotel is envisaged for the rest park area between the entertainment centre and the beach, while the Dragons training oval would become public space suitable for outdoor concerts.
A serviced apartment block would feature at the southern end of the site, while Lang Park at the northern end would be upgraded, removing the bus bays and introducing beachside cafes, bike path and a skate park.
The existing entertainment centre would be demolished and a new one capable of staging concerts or a number of conventions built in its place - rather than moving it to a new location.
It would also include a larger bump-in area for live productions, which would mean bigger events could come to town.
Retail and tourism outlets would also be possible along Harbour and Crown streets as well as Marine Drive and Lang Park.
The 100-page masterplan created by Urbis was funded by Business Illawarra members.
"A state-of-the-art entertainment precinct at the Wollongong foreshore is a long-held ambition for the Illawarra business community," said Business Illawarra executive director Adam Zarth.
"What was really important was that we set a big vision for what can happen at that site. I don't think there's a better site anywhere for a redevelopment that is a true precinct and somewhere that people from outside our region would travel just to visit and also locals can access day to day."
The project would be funded by a partnership between the NSW government and the private sector, with some of the construction costs being recouped through the construction of the hotel and serviced apartments.
Mr Zarth acknowledged there would be issues that needed to be overcome, such as a change of state legislation to allow hotels to be built on Venues NSW land, along with heritage issues.
When the entertainment centre and brewery were being constructed, there were issues with an old graveyard being located on the site of what is now the brewery forecourt.
To deal with these issues Mr Zarth said the project advocates for a heritage study to be carried out on the site.
Another contentious issue is likely to be parking, with 200 underground spaces planned for the WEC.
"Two hundred spaces was felt as a suitable amount to put under there," Mr Zarth said.
"If you start creating a huge car park by a stadium then all you end up with is, on game day, a huge amount of congestion and long waiting times to get out of that car park.
"The idea is to have car parks scattered around the nearby vicinity within walking distance."
The masterplan noted there were almost 1700 off-street parking spaces in commercial and council car parks within 800 metres from the stadium.
Mr Zarth said the next step was to take the masterplan to the NSW government and set a time-frame for the project.
"Government needs to fund and commence a business case around this so they can start to look at all the different attributes of what we're proposing and how the private sector could be involved," he said.
"The private sector needs to be involved from the start to look at the financing options.
"We want a five-year time-frame because the problem with this process is we could go back and forth [with the government] through masterplanning and things can get kicked between council and state government."
KEY FEATURES
- N20-storey hotel next to entertainment centre
- Serviced apartments at southern end
- New northern and southern grandstands
- WIN Stadium hill replaced with grandstand
- Public park with a stage
- Beachside cafes and restaurants
- Upgraded Lang Park, including a skate park
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