City of Newcastle has agreed to fully fund the restoration projects for the Newcastle and Merewether Ocean Baths, following an unsuccessful attempt to gain viable private investors during an Expression of Interest.
Ninety-eight years after first being built, construction is anticipated to commence early 2021, with no completion date set yet.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the lack of interest from private investors came as no surprise to Council with copious restrictions on the land.
"It's a very constrained site and we had a lot of conditions around public access, free entry and the protection of the heritage facade," Ms Nelmes said.
"The crown land legislation that governs that site has actually limited the lease time available. So, the type of investment needed was always going to make it very difficult for any private investment to stack up on that site."
Going forward into the drafting stage, City of Newcastle will continue to hold public surveys of visitors and users at the baths until the end of February while initial planning continues.
Here, they'll gather valuable information about the structure condition, the level of rectification required and public expectations to help guide the design.
A community reference group will also be formed in February to help lead the restoration efforts, giving voices to a diverse range of residents, local businesses, and user groups.
With already a large amount of involvement from the public through surveys and Facebook, the feedback will be reviewed in aims to make restoration successful and sustainable.
"Over the last couple of months of community engagement, the themes are obviously the protection of the heritage on the site, the upgrade of the change room facilities, the upgrade of the cafe kiosk facilities, as well as request for shade, seating, yoga rooms and things like that," Ms Nelmes said.
"We also need to take in consideration sea level rise, climate change, inundation... So, it is obviously a beautiful, iconic site but it has a lot of constraints and it's also going to be exceptionally labor intensive and cost intensive to do those upgrades in a sympathetic way."
Coming up to the centenary, there have been suggestions to do a grand opening on the 100th birthday of the baths however, with the quantity of work needed, Ms Nelmes believes it may take a little longer to re-open.
"I think it would be amazing but maybe slightly optimistic. The work that is required is in the tens of millions of dollars but it's not impossible, but we do need to make sure we are doing the right work. A lot of that is actually going through this consultation process, making sure there is broad engagement and then support after the final concept and the designs that will go in there.
The Lord Mayor ensured development would follow strict heritage guidelines with a range of experts to be involved.
"We will be talking to architects with heritage expertise, as well as again talking to the community later in the year around any proposed concepts."
Image Credit: ABC News
