Legacy’s 850-Home Corrimal Coke Works Scheme on Display
A former steel-era industrial site on the NSW South Coast is tracking toward 850 homes, well beyond its original 550-home blueprint, as rail-side uplift reshapes the Corrimal Coke Works precinct.
The 18.2ha holding at 27 Railway Street runs alongside the South Coast rail line, immediately south of Corrimal railway station.
This proximity underpins the density shift and places the site within walking distance of services to Wollongong and Sydney.
The Corrimal Coke Works ceased operating in April 2014 after 102 years of continuous industry, according to planning documents.
From 1912, coal was heated in coke ovens to produce metallurgical coke—the high-carbon fuel used in blast furnaces to manufacture steel— anchoring the Illawarra’s industrial economy.
Heritage documents identified the plant as a foundation in the establishment of Corrimal as a suburb.
Legacy Property, through the Trustee for LegPro 70 Unit Trust in partnership with landowner Illawarra Coke Company, advanced a masterplan following rezoning in 2022 for what is now known as The Works Corrimal.
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This framework contemplated about 550 homes across the broader site.
Later stages applied Transport Oriented Development (TOD) provisions under the Housing SEPP across land outside the mapped heritage curtilage.
Project material for The Works Corrimal identified an ultimate yield of about 850 homes across the precinct.
More than a century of heavy industry left contamination and legacy infrastructure across the corridor land, the planning documents said.
Demolition, soil excavation and remediation formed part of the delivery sequence before residential occupation.
Bulk earthworks approved under separate civil works applications established new ground levels across Stages 2 to 4.
Groundwater assessment and validation work was undertaken under earlier environmental approvals.
A site-specific amendment to the Wollongong Local Environmental Plan was gazetted in April 2022, enabling medium-density housing and public open space.
The land was added to the State Heritage Register the following month, with a mapped curtilage shaping where uplift can apply.
Stage 1 comprises 179 apartments on the northern parcel and built form consent was secured in April 2025. Construction is under way.
Legacy appointed Growthbuilt as construction partner in October 2024.
Project updates through 2025 confirmed roads and drainage works progressed and basement construction advanced onsite.
Legacy reports 70 per cent of Stage 1 one and two-bedroom apartments have been sold.
In June 2025, NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully declared Stage 2A State Significant Development under housing acceleration settings, shifting consent authority from Wollongong City Council to the state.
Stage 2A is now on public exhibition until March 16.
The proposal comprises 207 apartments across four buildings of four to six storeys on a 12,905sq m parcel.
Design is led by DKO Architecture with planning by Urbis and landscape by Land & Form.
Building 2.1 fronts the precinct’s central park, the primary public open space within the redevelopment.
Building 2.2 rises to six storeys and consolidates 57 affordable apartments within a single structure, applying uplift available under the Housing SEPP’s infill affordable housing provisions.
Bridge Housing has provided an in-principle letter confirming it would manage the affordable homes.
Buildings 2.3 and 2.4 sit largely within the mapped TOD area and apply a 2.5:1 floor space ratio and 22m height control.
A small portion of Building 2.3 falls within the heritage curtilage, requiring a height variation.
Rail proximity underpins the uplift.
TOD mapping enables higher floor space and height controls across land outside the heritage curtilage, driving the shift from the original 550-home framework toward about 850 homes across the masterplan.
Across Stage 2A, three single-level basements would provide 252 car spaces.
Buildings along the rail edge incorporate landscaped setbacks and acoustic treatments responding to corridor conditions.
Future components identified as Stages 2B, 3 and 4 would deliver the balance of yield, supported by Stage 2-4 civil works approvals establishing roads, subdivision and services across the site.
At full build-out, the precinct would deliver about 850 homes and up to 9ha of open space, including central and southern parks, riparian corridor works and a heritage plaza anchored by retained chimneys.
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