Urban Property Group Advances $235m ‘World Within Wollongong’

Approved by the NSW Government in April 2025, Stage 1 of Keira Place is under construction on the eastern part of the Smith Street holding.

Its two buildings comprise 150 apartments, including 27 affordable homes, above ground-floor retail and commercial space and two parking levels.

Urban has separately applied to add three storeys and 26 apartments to Stage 1.

Still under assessment, the modification would lift this component to 176 apartments.

On exhibition until July 7, Stage 2 covers the adjoining 1.1ha vacant parcel at 120-122 Smith Street (pictured at top), where three proposed buildings would add 391 apartments and 266 co-living rooms.

▲ A Cox Architecture rendering of Keira Place Stage 2, comprising towers of 30 and 25 storeys plus a 12-storey co-living building, beside the rail corridor.

Approval in its exhibited form would take Keira Place to 541 apartments and 266 co-living rooms.

Securing the Stage 1 modification as well would lift the combined count to 833 apartments and rooms.

Cox Architecture’s current Stage 2 scheme emerged from design review during 2025.

The State Design Review Panel questioned an earlier hotel, the land-use mix and distribution of height, prompting Urban to appoint independent urban designer Brett Newbold.

▲ The outlined 1.1ha parcel at 120-122 Smith Street is earmarked for Keira Place Stage 2, beside the approved first stage near the Wollongong CBD.

Compared with the earlier concept, the exhibited design removes the hotel, reduces the northern building from 33 storeys to 12, raises the southern tower from 18 to 25 storeys and introduces co-living housing.

A 30-storey tower would contain 205 apartments and the 25-storey building another 186, including 84 affordable homes managed by MyLife Community Housing for at least 15 years.

The 12-storey northern building would accommodate 266 co-living rooms, generally arranged at between 28 and 30 per typical level.

Stage 2 carries 51,545sq m of floor space, 370 car spaces, 50 motorcycle bays and 212 bicycle spaces.

▲ Cox Architecture’s rendering of Building C, the proposed 12-storey co-living building of 266 rooms.

A concurrent rezoning seeks to lift the site’s height control from 24m to 103.7m and floor-space ratio from 1.5:1 to 4.91:1.

Plans show a shared podium containing parking and residential uses beneath a pool, gardens, outdoor kitchens and communal areas.

Ground-level works include riparian planting, pedestrian links and a possible pocket park. No land dedication is proposed, while a bridge to Throsby Drive would require separate approval.

Extensive remediation of the former gasworks concluded in late 2021, before a 2024 land swap and subdivision with neighbouring Collegians Club reshaped the development parcel.