EXPANDING: Orange Ex-Services Club CEO Cameron Provost. The club yesterday got the tick of approval on a $25 million expansion. Photo: JUDE KEOGH 0407exserv1
THE Orange Ex-Services Club yesterday jumped the final hurdle in getting the go-ahead to start work on its $25 million development.
Orange Ex-Services chief executive officer Cameron Provost received approval from the Joint Regional Planning Panel to begin work on the nine-stage development, which will see the club transformed into a conference and accommodation hub for the city.
The expansion is set to include 82 additional rooms at the Templers Mill Motel, a block of 20 apartments, a 1200-seat auditorium, a 32-seat cinema, two restaurants, a new entry foyer, a gymnasium, a day spa and a two-storey alfresco area.
There will be 18 conference rooms at the club, seating as many as 200 people, a business centre and more than 750 new car spaces.
A block of 20 one, two and three-bedroom apartments on the site where the old PCYC stands is the final piece of the puzzle.
Orange City Council deputy mayor Jeff Whitton said the expansion was a show of strength in Orange.
“It shows great confidence from an organisation like the Ex-Services Club in how a place like Orange is travelling at the moment and where they see the future of Orange going,” he said.
The development will see the Orange Ex-Services Club balloon in size, with street frontage set to spread to Byng and Sale streets in addition to the club’s current main entry point on Anson Street.
“It’s a massive project,” Cr Whitton said.
“From an accommodation point of view, it really fills a need in the city, whether that be for people coming to Orange for business or socially.”
There were two changes recommended in the conditions, one being the lighting standards.
The second is the panel has asked the club’s stakeholders to soften the visual blow of such a project on the street fronts of both Sale and Byng streets, in an attempt to fit into the existing streetscape, which encompasses the Uniting Church and other historical buildings.
“And they’ve agreed, as you would expect,” Cr Whitton said.
“The stakeholders want a nice building as well.”
