It was originally sold a few years back right after aeropelican left, to some fella that wanted to turn it into a number of units. The council wouldn't approve the units however because they wanted to keep the airport (finally a council that sees the value in a strip too bad it couldn't be used). During that time one fella was allowed to keep his plane there and operate off the strip privately and aeropelican stored a couple of their twotters on the strip. That was the last I'd heard for ages (no longer live in the area) but now there is talk of a new commercial operator to be or already there.
YPEC is a brilliant possy for commercial and private use for the CentralCoast and Newcastle (probably why aeropelican did so well). I hope it does open to the public and drop the landing fees from when aeropelican owned it.