Penrith Stadium: NSW Government move to acquire Club Paceway for new Panthers home field
The future home of the Penrith Panthers has been confirmed, as the NSW Government announce plans to acquire the historic Penrith Paceway in a move described as a ‘death warrant’ for the club.
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The future of a historic paceway in Sydney’s western suburbs is hanging in the balance — after Infrastructure NSW made the shock announcement it would move to compulsorily acquire the site for a new NRL stadium.
Infrastructure wrote to representatives of the Penrith Paceway at Station St on Monday to formally commence negotiations for the acquisition of the land for the new Penrith Panthers stadium development across the entirety of the site.
“The proposed area for the project has been researched at length and will unfortunately require the acquisition of the whole of the property owned and occupied by the Penrith District Agricultural Horticultural and Industrial Society,” a letter to the club by head of projects NSW Tom Gellibrand said on July 4.
“If an agreement is unable to be reached, Infrastructure NSW may commence the compulsory acquisition process.
“Infrastructure NSW will make a genuine attempt to acquire the property by means of private agreement with you for at least six months from the date of this letter.”
Just 24 hours after contacting representatives behind the Penrith Paceway, Infrastructure NSW announced the “commercial negotiations” surrounding the site.
“The existing Penrith Stadium will continue to be available for the Penrith Panthers’ 2023 NRL season, which provides certainty to the Penrith Panthers and its fans,” the statement said. “Following a six-week community consultation program, feedback from over 3,000 people provided a clear picture of what the new stadium needs to deliver.
“The Paceway site would facilitate a state of the art stadium with an improved game day experience for fans, with modern amenities that exists within a precinct that is activated throughout the week, not just on event days.”
However, Penrith District Agricultural Horticultural and Industrial Society hit back, telling The Daily Telegraph the future of the group — and Penrith Paceway — was in jeopardy over the move by the NSW Government.
“The plan to take over the site for the stadium signs the death warrant for the entire showground and all activities conducted within, which has nowhere to immediately relocate to ensure continuity of their business,” Penrith Showground CEO Tash Greentree told NewsCorp.
“The advice from Infrastructure NSW flies in the face of recent conversations with Minister for Western Sydney Stuart Ayres, which had indicated a ‘win-win’ would be reached in any negotiations.”
Ms Greentree said there was no suggestion the NSW Government would relocate the Paceway “or continue operations in any way”.
“We are totally devastated by this news,” she said. “If, we have no viable new home to go to, we will need to close, and we won’t be able to come back from that.
“We could have been part of a terrific future for Penrith, but now we’re looking down the barrel of absolute ruin.
“I can’t understand why the Government would rip the heart out of our community like this — to our knowledge, no planning has been done to indicate how our entire 11-hectare site would be used for the stadium — and there are no plans available for the community to comment on.
“The Government has taken it upon itself to arbitrarily make decisions about the future, our future and acquire land before a plan has even been endorsed.”
Society representatives revealed multimillion-dollar plans to redevelop the Penrith Paceway site into a mixed-use housing development.
The plans, earmarked in 2018, would see the development of 2393 apartments across as many as 34 residential towers ranging from two to 16-storeys on the site, as well as a hotel, central park and supermarket.
“The Paceway site offers Penrith aonce-in-a-generation opportunity to contribute to improving local connections, to provide an urban hinge between Penrith’s residential recreation spaces, town centre and tourist offerings, and the creation of a new model of liveability and entertainment,” planners for the project said. “Most significantly the paceway has the chance to provide a heart to the recently announced suburban stadium redevelopment for the Penrith Panthers, providing a meeting location for before and after, dining and night-life entertainment.”
The redevelopment of the site, proposed by Capital Corporation on behalf of the club, would have resulted in fundraising for the relocation of the Penrith Paceway to a like-for-like facility.
An Infrastructure NSW spokeswoman said timing of construction for a new stadium will be confirmed “once the acquisition process is completed and the scope for the new Penrith Stadium has been determined’. The department plan to complete these works by the end of the year.
Penrith state Liberal MP Stuart Ayres said he welcomed the neogitiations by Infrastructure NSW.
“The stadium redevelopment is a significant opportunity for Penrith and it’s critical we achieve the best outcome possible for our whole community,” he said. “The practical outcome of this is that Penrith Stadium will continue to be used by the Penrith Panthers in 2023 and available to other hirers.”
Mr Ayres said the Penrith Paceway, its Harness Racing and Agricultural Show have been an important part of the Penrith community for “a long time”.
“These negotiations are as much about securing their long term future in Penrith as they are about redevelopment of the Stadium,” he said. “The scope for the new stadium will be determined once the acquisition process is concluded, which is expected in late 2022.”
A Penrith Panthers spokesman said the club also welcomed the NSW Government’s decision for the club to continue to play home matches at BlueBet Stadium in 2023.
“The Paceway site would facilitate a state-of-the-art stadium with an improved game day experience for fans, with modern amenities that exists within a precinct that is activated throughout the week, not just on event days,” the spokesman said. “The NSW government has outlined that the timing of construction for a new stadium will be confirmed once the acquisition process is completed and the scope for the new stadium has been determined, which is expected in late 2022.
“On behalf of all at Panthers, we’re delighted to remain at BlueBet Stadium for the 2023 NRL season,” Panthers Group CEO Brian Fletcher said. “To continue to play home fixtures at BlueBet Stadium is a great result for the Penrith community, as it provides certainty to members and fans, corporate partners and all stakeholders of Panthers.”
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