Car park sale could fetch $4mil Author: By LINTON BESSER Date: 07/08/2006 Publication: Illawarra Mercury
A PUBLIC car park in Corrimal is up for sale just two years after Wollongong City Council spent almost $2 million buying land to consolidate the site.
The 5000sqm Underwood St car park has been advertised for sale by expressions of interest, with expectations the commercially zoned property could fetch as much as $4 million.
In August 2003 the council reclassified the area from community to operational usage. The following year, it paid $1.8 million for a 1750sqm block to fill in an L-shaped parcel it had held for decades.
Ward 2 councillor Janice Kershaw said the council would have to ratify any proposal to sell the land, once a suitable tender had been selected by council staff.
Property watchers say the land is ideally suited to a major commercial development, but the council has declined to say what kind of development it wanted to see. A proposed $50 million eight-level shopping centre and residential complex for the site fell through almost a decade ago, and since then the area has been partially used as a free public car park.
A written statement from the Corrimal Chamber of Commerce welcomed the potential sale.
"We are pleased ... that there is finally some activity taking place in Corrimal," it said.
Sydney-based property agents CB Richard Ellis have been contracted by the council to handle the deal. Potential investors have been told the site would suit a range of developments including bulky goods showrooms and high-tech industries. But the chamber's former president Bill Whitting said the sale should not proceed.
"I would be against it going now because Corrimal needs parking," he said.
Cr Kershaw said a range of conditions would be placed on any developer - including the maintenance of public parking.
"They have to explain the provision of parking and the provision of access to parking and also what they think the benefits of the development would be to the Corrimal community."