Former mining land set aside for a Greg Norman-designed boutique golf course near Wollongong is up for sale after the companies that owned the land were placed into liquidation.
VIG Huntley Golf Pty Ltd and VIG Huntley Pty Ltd, two subsidiaries of Visionary Investment Group, went into liquidation with notes issued on September 11 this year.
It's a change of fortune from three years ago when the world famous golfer flew in by helicopter to Avondale, just west of Lake Illawarra, in October 2017.
Together with Michael Guo, Visionary Investment Group's chief executive, Norman outlined plans for a golf course complete with a 120-room hotel, a day spa and generously-sized residential allotments.
"From our perspective it's going to be a magnificent golf course, it's going to be a destination, the one you have to go to," Norman said at the time.
"A site like this, to create a diamond out of a piece of coal it takes a long period of time, and the diamond is sitting underneath."
Site 'has potential'
The so-called diamond is yet to be realised, along with the golf course, which was approved by the Wollongong City Council, and 99 residential allotments, that were approved by the Land and Environment Court after initially being rejected by the council.
Applications for a clubhouse, 66 golf lodges and a sports education centre had yet be approved.
It is believed some preliminary works related to constructing the golf course have begun.
The advertisement for the sale of the land through MMJ Real Estate Wollongong states that 495 hectares of the land "has the potential for over 360 residential allotments subject to approval", which is significantly more than the 99 lots that have actually been approved.
A spokesman for the real estate company said the larger number of smaller lots would be in keeping with lot sizes further east of the site, where the West Dapto growth area is on track to provide 19,000 new homes — equivalent to an entire town.
The MMJ Real Estate spokesman described initial interest in the sale as "very strong" but declined to comment on how much the land was likely to sell for, or indeed what the asking price was.
Mayor has concerns
But Wollongong Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery said that development of the site would not be straightforward, as the land was subject to multiple zoning designations.
Some of the land is zoned as residential, where a number of houses can potentially be built, another section — where the 18-hole golf course was set to be built — falls under recreational zoning, while another tract of land is designated as environmental and cannot be developed.
"It's going to be a challenge for whoever buys it because they will basically have to go back to scratch and work through planning proposals right through to development applications for development opportunities," Councillor Bradbery said.
"Whoever takes it on is going to have to do a lot of work."
The ABC understands that Greg Norman did not have an ongoing financial stake in the project and was not involved in it after his initial contribution to the design of the golf course.
