Sharks property proposal offers club a way out of debt
Sydney Morning Herald; 18 February 2011
 

THE board of the Cronulla Sharks will take a property proposal to members for a vote on Monday night, in a deal that could be a matter of life or death to the club that owes almost $13 million to its bankers.

A consortium of three property developers is proposing to build up to 750 apartments, and 12,500 square metres of entertainment facilities and shops on the Sharks' land on the Woolooware waterfront.

The new board, appointed in mid-2009, selected the proposal by the consortium of Capital Corporation, Parkview and Bluestone Property Solutions following an expression of interest process last year.

Rescue ... an artist's impression of the Woolooware site development.

The new deal comes after the club's previous attempt to pull itself out of debt - an over-55s development of 145 units with a hotel and shops - was ruled unviable by its property adviser, David Hynes.

Mr Hynes, of the developer Winston Langley, said if approved the deal would provide a revenue stream for the club starting at about $1 million a year from the retail component. The club would also take a 10 per cent cut of all residential sales on completion, collecting what Mr Hynes "conservatively" estimated as a further $35 million.

The club's chairman, Damian Irvine, said the feedback the board had received so far in community consultations made it confident members would vote in favour of working with the consortium.

However, a former club president, Jack Stewart, said the project would sideline the junior league club Cronulla-Caringbah, whose playing fields would be developed under the plan.

"I'm critical of the fact that they're going to dispose of what is recreational land for residential land without having any regard to what's going to happen to the junior footballers," Mr Stewart said.

Mr Irvine said the club would find new playing fields and create facilities within the area for the juniors.

But the juniors club president, Ross Giles, sounded a cautious note, saying discussions with the Sharks were continuing and his members would have to approve any move.

Developers of the former Balmain Leagues Club want to almost double the size of a residential and retail development on the Victoria Road site, which was rejected by a regional planning panel last year.

The managing director of Rozelle Village, Ian Wright, said his company asked the planning department last month to declare the revised project of state significance, which would allow the minister to approve it. He said the new project was worth about $200 million, almost double the estimated cost of the project rejected last year, but would not say how many extra apartments or how much more retail space the additional money would buy.

His company had obtained options to buy four properties around the empty leagues club, giving it "10 to 15 per cent" more space, which meant the design could be changed so cars could enter and leave via Victoria Road and head either east or west.

"As part of the result of acquiring the additional properties we have unlocked the traffic problem," Mr Wright said.

But David Anderson, of the Rozelle Residents Action Group, said he was briefed by the company this week and he believed they wanted two of the three apartment towers 20 metres higher and one 35 metres higher, claims Mr Wright denied.

Mr Anderson said he was alarmed at the bulk and scale of the project.