Newcastle Jockey Club can now start work on their state-of-the-art stables after the NSW Government gave the project the tick of approval.
The multi-million dollar project is a State Significant Development and therefore needed the green light from the Department of Planning before work could begin.
The nearly $40 million project will see the old stables on the Beaumont Street side demolished and a new two-storey building built on the Chatham Street side of the precinct.
NJC Chief Executive Officer Duane Dowell said it is exciting to see the project finally able to start.
“This has been some time in the planning and I think what it does now is really sets us up to move forward,
“The significant thing is that it really provides us with a great upgrade to the current stabling that is getting to the end of life and the provincial trainers that we have here at Newcastle certainly deserve that elevated level and it will match world class facilities like what they have in Sydney,” he said.
The current stables have been in operation for nearly 50 years.
“One of the major positives out of this [moving the stables to Chatham Street] is that it will reduce all of the traffic, the trucks that transport horses from the Beaumont Street end all the way up to Chatham Street every morning for track work, they’ll be eliminated,
“With providing two-storey barns we think we can make better use of the space and aesthetically it will look fantastic as well and it won’t be unsightly when people drive past,
“It will then unlock the land down the back on the Beaumont Street side for other development whether that be residential or commercial which is yet to be determined but that will help the jockey club with its sustainability moving forward but we don’t have any firm plans yet,” he said.
The next stage for the project is getting together enough funding.
“Funding is the part that we now need to seek. We have some contributions with NJC and Racing NSW who put forward some smaller contributions to get the project going but certainly on a whole its a significant project, $35 million plus, so we’ll be seeking some more funding. Our intention is to try and get that through either state and Federal Government,
“We’ve had some good dialogue with Mr Kevin Anderson the Racing Minister in the last couple of weeks so we’re hoping we might be able to see some in the next couple of budgets and federally I’m reaching out to them as well,” said Duane Dowell.