The Wagga City council-owned land, which has been home to the Veteran and Vintage Motor Club, was sold on Thursday to locally owned development firm Damasa for $1.06 million.

Damasa director Daniel Donebus said the company was now in a position to plan for the site in greater detail and would be working on lodging a development application with council as soon as possible.

"We intend to get to work immediately to flesh out exactly what we can do down there," Mr Donebus said.

"That's going to be quite an involved process, because as we've tried to assure everyone all the way through, if we do anything down there it needs to be done properly."

Mr Donebus said he hoped to have a DA ready within six months for the $180 million overhaul of the Morgan, Murray and Forsyth streets block.

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The plans have been a source of contention for Wagga residents, heightened by council's decision to amend the Local Environmental Plan 2010 and reclassify the precinct to allow a major development to be built there.

Mr Donebus said he intends to have current tenants, such as Carlo's Cafe and Ray Ray's Diner, remain in the precinct, where his family has owned land since the 1970s.

Motor Club president Rob Le Lievre said he had "no issues whatsoever" with the sale.

"Council will be relocating us so that's something that we've got to go through now. At this point we don't know where or how," Mr Le Lievre said.

"It's not a surprise. The city's growing. We were very happy there but it's a new chapter and we move on."

But resident Chris Roche, who has been in a long stoush with council over the central block said the sale was "very disappointing".

"What is the benefit of this sale of community land for the community? There is none. There's a benefit to a developer only," he said.

Resident Anne McGregor has called for transparency from council on how it will spend the money from the sale as well as on any plans for a new community site.

"We think that there needs to be a lot more community benefit from it, that's what we're hoping will happen. And we'd like to know what council is considering, but they've never told us," she said

Council director of regional activation Michael Keys was unavailable for an interview but said in a statement that council would assess any DA lodged, and it will be subject to a formal public exhibition process for community review.