Wollongong City Council is working with Renew Australia to add extra creativity and vibrancy to vacant spaces in the Crown Street Mall precinct through a Renew Wollongong Program.
“We’re working with our partner, Renew Australia, to help bring creative business enterprises and projects to underutilised spaces in the Crown Street Mall precinct.” Wollongong City Lord Mayor Councillor Gordon Bradbery AM.
“The Renew Wollongong Program aims to provide business creatives with the opportunity to grow their skills and develop projects that will help activate some of the currently underutilised spaces.
“We are excited about the contribution that the Renew Wollongong Program can make and its potential to inject new ideas. In conjunction with the existing businesses in the precinct, Renew Wollongong will give residents and visitors alike another good reason to visit.”
Angela Simons, Manager at Renew Australia, said: “After a successful scoping project last year, when the team met with real estate agents and owners to gauge their support, we are thrilled to be working in Wollongong. Our study found that a Renew Wollongong initiative was not only viable, but of great interest and demand from private property owners, local agents and Council.
“Renew Wollongong will help to bring even more people into the area and encourage people to spend more time on Crown Street, encourage more foot traffic for nearby businesses and the area in general. It also provides the opportunity for owners and agents to show potential paying tenants an active and vibrant space.”
Using the successful model that was first pioneered in Newcastle, Renew Wollongong will work with the community and property owners to make vacant properties available for local creative industries to test their ideas.
A new Project Manager for Renew Wollongong has been appointed. That person will oversee the initiative with ongoing support of the Renew Australia Team.
Over the coming weeks the Renew Wollongong Team will identify vacant space in the Crown Street Mall precinct and launch an ‘Expression of Interest’ campaign.
Anyone interested in finding out more should contact Renew Wollongong on (02) 4227 7110.