Plans for a multistorey office at 199-205 Morgan Street have been approved by Wagga Council, with applicant Damasa believing construction will begin by the end of the year. Photo: Supplied.
Wagga property management company Damasa will soon begin work on a multilevel commercial office and car park on Morgan Street.
Construction at 199-205 Morgan Street is set to begin in the coming months, but progress on the project has been a long time coming, with Damasa waiting to implement its plans since April 2022.
Despite plans for the multistorey office space and carpark development being approved over two years ago, delays due to COVID-19 meant work on the development was restricted.
Damasa director Manuel Donebus explained that due to the delays, the cost of the development had ballooned and changes to the original plans were needed.
“Building costs for the development rose by over 30 per cent,” Mr Donebus said.
“Because of this, we lodged a modification to the original plans four months ago to have the number of car parks reduced from 483 spaces to 316.
“The building itself had already been approved, but this was just a modification which involved removing two levels of car parking and simplifying the facade to help bring these costs back down to a point where the building became viable.”
Although the development application to modify the plans was submitted in April this year, Domasa has been prevented from beginning works on a project deemed controversial by Wagga Wagga City Council (WWCC) and some members of the community.
This caused the application to be brought before councillors to be voted upon at the 23 July ordinary council meeting. Councillors ultimately voted in favour of the modifications, allowing Damasa to begin work on the property.
Mr Donebus said the decision to take the application to a vote was a frustrating and confusing one, as he believed the number of submissions opposing the development did not meet the required number to flag the application. Mr Donebus said the application also required an extended public exhibition period for reasons unknown to him.
“Unfortunately, for some reason, the general manager has taken the tack that this development is controversial,” he said.
“Council is required to take it to a full council meeting if they have more than 10 objections. Now they only received nine, and two of them were identical in wording, and all of them were very similar.
“Council seems to have taken the view that every time one of these development applications go up it must go to a to a full council meeting. So again, it just makes the process longer and a little more convoluted.”
According to the WWCC business papers for the 23 July meeting, 10 submissions were made with nine raising concerns about the reduced number of parking spaces in the revised plan. A WWCC spokesperson confirmed that a total of 10 submissions, for and against, is required to bring the matter before council.
Under the Wagga Wagga Development Control Plan 2010, the new development is required to have a minimum of 170 spaces, well below the 316 planned under the new modification.
WWCC general manager Peter Thompson said council had no concerns about the number of parking spaces as the planned number was more than 140 above the requirement.
“There’s absolutely no concern from our perspective about them reducing the number of car parks for this particular development because they are way in excess of what they need to provide,” he said.
“What the developer uses the additional car parks at that building for is entirely a matter for the developer because they’re building them for their own purposes rather than a requirement of counts as a condition of consent.”
Now that the development application has been approved, Mr Donebus believes the new multilevel office will begin construction in the coming months and be completed in late 2025.
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