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A $77 million resort-style motorsport park near Newcastle has been granted development approval.
Known as BlackRock Motor Park, the facility is located on a former coal mine site in the Lake Macquarie City Council area, in the greater Newcastle region.
CEO Tony Palmer has previously described it to the Newcastle Herald as “a bit like a golf resort, but for people who like cars,” akin to the Ascari resort in Spain.
Plans first surfaced for BlackRock Motor Park in the latter half of 2017 before it was approved by the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel, which is charged with handling ‘regionally significant’ development applications in the area, last night.
The 5.58km circuit will be capable of hosting up to 20 vehicles at a time while the facility will have a capacity of 500 people, including staff.
It will also feature a restaurant, function area, and accommodation.
Project cost was around $30 million when first mooted, but rose due to concerns raised by council over noise and other environmental aspects.
Development approval is subject to meeting of particular conditions around noise.
“We’ve got a bit of work to do over the next little while to obviously stick to those conditions in order to get the full green light, but technically it’s been approved,” said Palmer, according to Triple M Newcastle.
Located in the rural town of Wakefield, BlackRock Motor Park is around 25km (by road) west southwest of the Newcastle East Street Circuit.
The region could be set for an influx in exclusive motorsport facilities with Circuit Italia revealing plans for a similar 2.9km member only facility in 2017, located 35 minutes north of Newcastle.
