Phil O'Shea, owner of Five Barrel Brewing said when he set up the business there was little available industrial land to choose from, and the situation has only gotten worse.

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"We found it incredibly challenging to find a suitable location to start the brewery," he said.

"We found it really interesting that Wollongong is an industrial town and the options were so limited."

In the years since, the steady march of the residential and commercial core of the Wollongong CBD south towards the brewery on Keira Street has eaten into formerly commercial and industrial lands.

"We might be losing some key industrial areas where businesses like ours might be able to get set up. It doesn't look like there's land opening up for industrial use at the moment," Mr O'Shea said

Now looking to expand, Mr O'Shea said the business may need to consider relocating.

"The suitable spaces for this kind of activity are just getting pushed further out of Wollongong."

Wollongong Council is currently seeking feedback on industrial zoning across the LGA.

Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said the types of industrial uses in the city are changing.

"Our city continues to grow, and we want to stay up to date with the changing needs of our business community," he said.

It's a similar story in former industrial cities the world over. As manufacturing moves offshore and heavy, polluting industrial practices are phased out, former industrial land is cannibalised by commercial or residential development.

However as new uses have arrived - such as vast warehouses for online delivery businesses - demand for industrial land has soared, with vacancy rates for industrial precincts below 1 per cent in Sydney in December 2021, according to commercial real estate company CBRE.

Chair of Illawarra industrial grouping i3Net David Bridge said with a number of major industrial projects on the horizon, Wollongong would need more, not less industrial land.

"We know there might come a time sometime in the future where there is not enough land," he said.

"Some degree of planning and foresight needs to be applied - what does the next 10, 20 years look like - because there will come a time where land is used up, and there isn't available land for future purposes."

Mr Bridge said mooted projects such as wind turbine assembly and manufacturing, and a potential naval base would increase demand for industrial land, particularly around Port Kembla.

Earlier this year, BlueScope began consultation on a masterplan for land owned by the steelmaker but currently underutilised. Future uses for these sites are largely up in the air.

Besides these heavier uses, Mr O'Shea said there was a case for retaining industrial land near residential centres to encourage a diversity of businesses and jobs close to where people live and welcomed Council opening consultation on the issue.

"We need jobs, we need places to live, so the mix has to be right. You can't release land and then sort out infrastructure problems later or open residential corridors up and not put public transport in that mix."

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