Balmain Leagues Club site will soon have a new owner
The owners of the 7,300 sqm proposed Rozelle Village development at the site of the Balmain Leagues club are understood to be selling the site to another developer, in another chapter in its 11 year story.
Club officials have requested the new owners for the Tigers to be allowed to return to their home, according to the Inner West Courier.
Inner West Council mayor Darcy Byrne said he has written to the new buyer, Grand Rozelle Pty Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Heworth Investment.
The letter to Grand Rozelle Pty Ltd director, Yuhui He, has asked the company to reopen the car park behind the Club on Waterloo Street, to help local businesses and residents.
“There is an existing approval, which I achieved through Leichhardt Council, for 6 - 8 storey development of the site, which includes space for a new leagues club to be gifted to the Tigers. We know this scale of development stacks up financially because we paid for a firm to undertake a commercial viability study. I hope the new owner takes this approved development as the starting point,” Byrne said on his official Facebook page.
Back in 2012, property developer Pacific Investments had put up a ‘Rozelle Village’ proposal for the Balmain Leagues club site in Rozelle.
The revised proposal, which is double the size of the original plan that was rejected in 2010 because it was considered too big, had also prompted outrage from local activists.
Rozelle Village director Ian Wright had wanted to redevelop the site, which would include two multi-storey apartment towers.
However, the proposal was stalled in the Land and Environment Court.
The owners had appealed an earlier decision by a NSW government’s Joint Regional Planning Panel to reject the development, which also included a supermarket and shops.
It is understood the latest sale is yet to be finalised and the exchange period is underway.
“Previous State Government determinations as well as this year’s ruling by the Land and Environment Court make skyscrapers an impossibility on the site,” said Byrne.
“I hope the new owner simply accepts this and works constructively to replace the current eyesore with a good development that allows the Tigers to return to Rozelle.”
Greens State MP for Balmain Jamie Parker called on the new owner to open up community consultation about its plans for the site.
“The community welcomes the change of ownership for the Rozelle Village site and hopes this will provide the opportunity for a fresh start,” Parker said.