The Salvation Army is $175,000 out of pocket and stuck in a rundown building despite being promised a new Wollongong headquarters by developer Belmorgan three years ago.
The Salvation Army was promised a new tailor-made headquarters across the road from its 50-year-old building in Burelli St, which is literally falling apart and being held together by a number of bandaid measures.
However, there has been a breakdown in communication between Belmorgan and the Salvation Army with no-one game to say when the sorely needed headquarters will be completed.
It follows news that Wollongong City Plaza, the Belmorgan company which owns the Salvation Army site, has been placed in receivership by its lender Suncorp.
The move into receivership followed the liquidation of another Belmorgan company, Belmorgan Property Development, in October with debts of $10 million.
In 2005, Belmorgan bought the land now occupied by the Salvation Army for its $300 million Gravity hotel and retail proposal on the corner of Burelli and Corrimal streets.
In return Belmorgan agreed to build the Salvos a new headquarters on the site of its 110-space car park across the road.
Today the car park is gone and in its place sits the half-finished headquarters.
Wollongong City Council approved the new building in December 2005, designs were amended in May 2007, and it was expected it would be finished by the end of that year.
Most recently, in September, Belmorgan principal John Kosseris said the project would be completed by Christmas.
Yesterday he said although the commitment was made in good faith, additional demands by the Salvation Army blew out costs to $11 million and led to a stalemate.
The Salvos dispute the $11 million figure and say any blowout in costs is the result of ongoing delays to the project.
"It just got too hard," Mr Kosseris said.
"I have the utmost respect for church and Salvation Army, it is just that certain committee members don't seem to understand that they are asking for more, more and more ... In the end we put our foot down and said no more."
The Salvation Army's new headquarters has taken centre stage in the clash between Belmorgan and its creditors.
In October a scaffolding company, which claimed it was owed $12,500 from Belmorgan, sent a team of workers to the site, stripped off the scaffolding, loaded it into utes and drove off.
Mr Kosseris at the time said he was committed to paying the company.
The Salvation Army said it had paid all its obligations to Belmorgan and that any money owing to creditors was not the result of its failure to pay up.
"The Salvation Army does not have any outstanding debt with (Belmorgan company) Wollongong City Plaza for work on its centre," a spokesman said.
"It sympathises with companies and workers disadvantaged by the current situation," the Salvos spokesman said.
Mr Kosseris said the Belmorgan group was still on track to deliver the Gravity proposal and believed it would be approved by the Department of Planning in 60 days.
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