Parramatta Advertiser
North Parramatta rezoning fuels confidence in Leagues Club redevelopment
A hotel, apartment block, eat street and Eels Walk of Fame – housing plans have unlocked ‘great possibilities’ for a multimillion dollar entertainment precinct at North Parramatta.
Parramatta Leagues Club is ‘playing catch-up’ but is on track for an overhaul.
A hotel, apartment block, brewery and eat street – despite a long delay, plans are kicking on for a multimillion redevelopment of Parramatta Leagues Club almost a decade after the entertainment precinct was first revealed. Parramatta Leagues Club president Greg Monaghan said the Church St North Precinct – where up to 1800 homes are touted to be built – lent itself for the new club to be the gateway to the city. “The
zoning changes in North Parramatta have opened up great possibilities being explored,’’ he said.
“A lot of it will be high rise, of course, so we think people will want to have great entertainment, and great facilities, things we can provide within walking distance of home and on the way to Parramatta. “We want to build something state-of-the-art and serve members for the next 20 years.’’
Parramatta Leagues Club president Greg Monaghan wants to transform the venue.
Under the rezoning, which was announced in December, height limits on the 17-hectare land strip around Fennell Street and Prince Alfred Square light rail stations will increase.
Changes will enable buildings to reach 30 storeys along Church St – two thirds the size of existing height limits in the Parramatta CBD. It has also renewed confidence for club management to reinvent the leagues club. It will be demolished within five to 10 years to make way for the new clubhouse, a brewery, Eels Walk of Fame with football-shaped plaques honouring the club’s legends, a mixed-use apartment and retail block, and dining precinct. “We really want to make it something vibrant and add to the liveability of all the people living in the high-rise,’’ Mr Monaghan said. He has vowed to demolish the existing O’Connell St club when the new venue is open. The first stage of the club was built in 1958 and has grown to boast 63,000 members while the football club membership is one of the NRL’s highest at 35,000. Despite the hefty figures, Mr Monaghan, who was
re-elected as the Leagues Club president last week, conceded its headquarters has lagged. “We are playing catch up – we have to be quite candid about that,’’ he said.
“A lot of money was wasted in the past on salary cap fines and things like that, and so previous administrations haven’t really had enough money or focus to be able to progress the club in a way they’d like to.’’
An artist's impression of a hotel that was proposed almost a decade ago. Plans have changed but a hotel is still in the pipeline.
The ambitious plans for a $100m entertainment precinct first emerged in 2015 when it was revealed Parramatta Stadium would be bulldozed to make way for the new arena, along with a 200-room hotel. The stadium was demolished a year later and the $300m stadium opened in 2019. The tenpin bowling alley and $26m six-storey carpark were completed but the rest of the plans have been sidelined. Now Parramatta’s development boom is fuelling confidence in the development. Patience will be needed. The hotel’s location is yet to be determined and development applications have not been lodged. The precinct sits on land not just owned by the club but Parramatta Park Trust and Venues NSW. “It’s very complicated,’’ Mr Monaghan said. “We want to produce a club that’s the very best club for our members, and that’s going to be much easier to do with a new building rather than cobbling together the old one.’’ “The players would go over to the Leagues Club and all the fans would be in the auditorium and it was like a rock concert,’’ he said. “I feel the Leagues Club is a bit disconnected from the footy club. I guess it’s a bit quiet compared to other clubs like Bankstown Sports Club and (West HQ) at Rooty Hill. “It’s not thriving at the moment. There’s no attractions and people don’t go to the club to play the pokies. It’s all cut and paste – a lot of Band Aid solutions.’’
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