A Wagga consortium has revealed plans to build a multi-million dollar entertainment complex for the city, designed to attract music festivals and international artists.
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The plans, which will be presented to council within the next week, include a 35,000 person outdoor amphitheatre with camping facilities, an 8000-seat indoor arena, an enormous exhibition hall and a restaurant.
Underpinning the planned entertainment complex is a proposal to repurpose the old Riverina Woolcombing plant at Bomen.
The site already has large sheds and a number of amenities that would be redeveloped, drastically reducing the cost and construction timeline if approved.
According to property valuer Chris Egan, one of the proponents of the Bomen Entertainment Complex, the facility would be ready to use within a year. He said the only delay would be getting the land rezoned to allow the centre to operate.
“It would be about 12 months from development application to opening, but our hands are tied until we get zoning approval,” Mr Egan said. “We want a facility that will take weather out of the equation, we saw what the rain did when the Beach Boys came back in February.
“With about 1000 acres of land, there’s no reason we couldn’t host a multi-day music festival with camping like Byron Bay’s Bluesfest or the CMC Rocks festival.”
More than 100,000 people flock to Byron Bay’s festival each year, which is held across five days. The CMC Rocks festival, held near Ipswich in Queensland, had more than 45,000 people attend each of its three days this year.
Designed to cater for a wide range of events, the centre could host everything from concerts to rodeos, car shows and weddings, Mr Egan said, potentially bringing millions into the Wagga economy.
“There are no negatives for the community here, we’re completely privately-funded so even if we failed the council and city would not be any worse off,” he said.
“Wagga’s been talking about something like this for 20 or 30 years, but you’ll never get the $50 million to build it out of government.
“The infrastructure is just sitting here, ready to convert, the nearest houses are about seven kilometres away so you won’t disturb anyone, there are only upsides.”
The proposal comes as council prepares to begin construction of a $9 million stadium at Equex, more than 18 months after the “shovel-ready” project was revealed.
However, Wagga Netball Association’s Jenny Lewington said she hadn’t heard anything from council about the project, despite the group’s pledge to contribute $200,000 to the 3100-seat stadium, which would include three indoor courts, change rooms and a function room.
Garry Hiscock from the Equex Outdoor Association, which had bankrolled a study into whether Wagga needed an indoor arena, said there had been strong demand from the community for an undercover arena for decades.