The Land and Environment Court has found in favour of developers in two separate decisions about Wollongong’s CBD. Photo: Sang Hyun Cho, Pixabay.
Wollongong City Council will be out of pocket almost $20,000 after the Land and Environment Court overturned two of its development decisions.
The two separate Land and Environment Court decisions gave the go-ahead to developers for a swathe of new high-rise buildings in the CBD following initial objections from Wollongong City Council.
The first and largest proposal is for the buildings around Woolworths, at 65-67 Burelli Street, 93-99 Church Street and 52 Stewart Street.
Collegians Illawarra Leagues Club is located at 97-99 Church Street. The future of the club is unknown.
The Land and Environment Court was told Themisto Pty Ltd proposed to demolish the existing buildings on those sites and build five mixed-use buildings for commercial, retail and residential tenants.
The project would include 204 residential apartments, three levels of basement car parking, the removal of four trees and some landscaping and public space upgrades.
Four out of five of the buildings would be about 24 m tall, however part of one building would have a maximum height of 47.7 m and comply with a maximum height of 48 m.
The proposal was intially lodged in August 2024, before the Housing Development Authority State Significant Development pathway was available.
It was knocked back by Wollongong City Council in November of the same year, however upon appeal and after a conciliation conference Themisto Pty Ltd agreed to make some tweaks to its design.
The Land and Environment Court ultimately decided in favour of Themisto Pty Ltd in November 2025, and Wollongong City Council was ordered to pay $7000 in court costs.
Developers 101 Keira Street Pty Ltd submitted an application to demolish buildings at 101-113 Keira Street and construct a seven-storey shop-top housing development over a single level of basement parking.
The site, across the road from the massive proposed development formerly known as the WIN Grand, is currently home to the Dion Building and Toscani and Blow Bar.
It was initially knocked back by Wollongong City Council because it slightly exceeded the height limit for the site, by about 60 cm, and lacked the required 16 m of separation from adjoining buildings on 69 Smith Street and 6 Thomas Street.
The Land and Environment Court heard that in some places the proposal would leave as little as one metre between the development and 69 Smith Street.
101 Keira Street Pty Ltd appealed the decision, and the parties were able to come to an agreement at a conciliation meeting.
The court found the proposed development was substantially within the height standard except for isolated elements which did not give rise to additional floor space or intensification of the development, and did allow for better sunlight and cross ventilation.
It also found the use of apartment orientation, balustrading and screening reduced the amount of overlook between the buildings to acceptable levels.
Wollongong City Council was ordered to pay costs of $12,000 to the developers.
