Coast’s Clubs Expand

The population of the Central Coast is expected to balloon over the next decade and beyond, with the region set for massive resultant change, and the area’s popular clubs are taking steps to ensure they can remain relevant and viable with major projects underway at clubs including Doyalson Wyee RSL Club (The Doylo), Central Coast Leagues Club and Gosford RSL Club.

“Gosford RSL Club faced serious questions around its future as far back as 2013 when it was apparent that the current building would not be adequate to service the existing popularity of the Club let alone the forecasted growth of Gosford and the Central Coast,” says Gosford RSL Club CEO Russell Cooper.

“The Board and management started planning in 2014, progressing to an approved DA for extensions to the existing Club before the burgeoning popularity of the Club and financial success prompted reconsideration of the plan.”

“The Club engaged Tully Heard to consider alternative strategies for the future and from this detailed Development and Product Strategy came the concept of completely rebuilding the Club.”

Gosford RSL’s $48 million ‘masterplan’ is now just six months away from completion, despite the challenges of the pandemic, with the new facility designed to represent a fresh “gateway” to Gosford and the Central Coast.

“The end result will be a new building, designed to make the community proud and to service the Club’s members and the community for the next 50 years.”

^{Gosford RSL Club CEO Russell Cooper}

“The finished design is a striking building, over three levels, with a commanding street presence,” says Russell.

“The end result will be a new building, designed to make the community proud and to service the Club’s members and the community for the next 50 years. The redevelopment will enable Gosford RSL to prosper financially and to expand and diversify within our precinct to suit the needs of our community.”

Doylo Lifestyle Group has been successful in rezoning it’s 50-hectare estate and is now in the complex approval stage of an ambitious $400 million development project which is scheduled to be completed in stages across the next decade.

“We are now in the process of submitting a series of development applications and progressing forward with the staged investment and delivery of a mixed use intergenerational development which will provide future member and community benefits in the form of residential housing, seniors’ living, Land Lease communities, medical, childcare, a hotel, quick service restaurants and a fuel precinct, a health and wellness and aquatic precinct, a recreational precinct, a hospitality and entertainment precinct, infrastructure, open spaces and balanced biodiversity preservation,” says Doyalson Lifestyle Group CEO Darren Thornton.

A key community benefit of the massive undertaking is the supply of much-needed housing stock to the Central Coast market, which is experiencing a crisis of housing shortage and homelessness, while the ultimate goal of the project is to guarantee the Club’s future.

“In our eyes this will be a major milestone and will reposition our company from being a Club with some existing diversified offerings to an investment company with an ethical investment mandate focused on maximising financial, social and environmental values for our members and the broader community,” says Darren.

“We will be immensely strengthened in our financial sustainability and business longevity through the highly defensive and diversified asset classes and revenue streams. We will have a consolidated and renewed market relevance and broader community appeal.”

Work is also underway on a $450 million plan to completely overhaul and modernise the Central Coast Leagues Club, with the Club seeking to maintain its role in an aggressively changing region. You can read more about the Central Coast League’s Club’s ‘masterplan’ here.

It’s understood Mingara Recreation Club and Diggers @ The Entrance are also considering construction projects.