Plans for serviced apartments on Crown Lane, Wollongong vacant lot

The site at 9 Crown Lane, near the intersection with Rawson Street has been vacant for years, but applications to turn the site into a multistorey development have been lodged with Wollongong Council since the 1980s.

In 2016, the then-owner prepared plans to build a 10 storey boarding house targeting university students, however this was ultimately watered down in favour of an eight storey development including 95 rooms and ground floor commercial suites.

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Council officers recommended that the project get the green light from the local planning panel, however the development never proceeded.

In the interim, the space has been split into two parking lots, with cyclone fencing around the block.

The site was put up for sale in 2020 and after a marketing campaign by Sydney based agents for real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, the property was sold in 2021 for $4 million.

At the time of the listing, JLL directors Dylan McEvoy and Gordon McFadyen foreshadowed a change from student accommodation, telling property outlets that other options were possible at the in-demand site.

"There is very little opportunity like it in this part of Wollongong to buy a block that comes with the zoning," Mc McEvoy said at the time.

Now, this has come to pass, with plans submitted on behalf of 9 Crown Lane Holdings - owned by Sydney-based Steven Sarkis for an eight storey serviced apartment building with Wollongong City Council.

If approved, the project would add to the thicket of high rises at the top of Rawson Street, with the Signature and Avante towers adjacent. It also would lead to the development of the last piece of vacant land in the block bordered by Rawson Street and Crown Street, after a developer submitted plans for an eight storey apartment building on a nearby vacant lot on the Crown Street side of the block.

Since the return of students following the lifting of COVID border restrictions, Wollongong has suffered a dearth of student accommodation. With a rental market with vacancies below one per cent and the University of Wollongong selling off student dorms at a loss, which were then turned into a hotel, students and low income renters have struggled to find a home.

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