A transport interchange with public car parking and retail space at Nelson Bay is part of a concept Tomaree Business Chamber wants Port Stephens Council to consider.
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The chamber said the Donald Street-west site was ripe for such a development rather than the 17-storey nursing home proposal the council fielded from an expression of interest process.
"We are a tourist hub and those visitors are the lifeblood of our town," chamber president Ryan Palmer said.
"It would be great to have coaches come into the town so those people can spend some money, buy some food, before they wander down to the foreshore.”
The chamber's vision for the Donald Street site is ground floor retail, basement car parking and a ramp to the roof for coaches to access the interchange.
"I believe there would be an opportunity for funding through the state government and the tourism sector but the retail development on the ground floor would also generate money and help pay for what would be a community asset," he said.
"Hopefully with us putting projects like this on the agenda we attract funding. We need to start catching the eye of state government to get funding for these projects."
Mr Palmer said Port Stephens deserved a slice of the state pie and hoped the December-appointment of Michael Cassel to the Hunter Development Corporation would change its Newcastle-centric focus.
"The focus has been on Newcastle but it's time for HDC to look further afield and Tomaree Business Chamber is putting up its hand on behalf of Port Stephens," Mr Palmer said.
Better to invest in a transport interchange, Mr Palmer said, than the alternative.
“If the Woolworths site sold for $12 million then the Donald Street sites have to be worth at least $8 million, even $10 million, we shouldn’t be giving them away to developers. The [Donald Street] proposals… only replacing the number of car park spaces when we need to increase them. If these two sites are given away it doesn't solve our car parking issues and it would cost millions to buy land for a car park down the track."
