Tony Merhi’s Merrylands Plan Balloons to 900-Home Scheme

A long-gestating precinct at Sydney’s Merrylands has grown again under a new proposal.

A fresh application for a 900-home, $460-million project has now been filed under the State Significant Development pathway.

A request for SEARs has been filed by Green Dior Holdings, a subsidiary of Tony Merhi’s Merc Capital, for a site at 246-264 Woodville Road in the Cumberland LGA, about 4km south of the Parramatta CBD.

The request, filed on November 17, is the latest of many proposals during the past seven years, with each iteration becoming larger, however, construction is yet to begin. 

The current project was declared state significant by the Housing Delivery Authority in June. Under the latest version proposed, five shoptop towers of 14 to 19 storeys would rise on the 25,332sq m site.

The apartments would include a 15 per cent affordable component by floor space, and would be accompanied by a 2000sq m park, retail, childcare, and basement car parking. One of the towers would include five storeys of serviced apartments.

Gross floor area for the project would total 105,000sq m, with floor space ratio of 4.13:1 (compared to the local control of 2.2:1) and heights up to 67m (against the local limit of 31m). The proposal approved by the HDA included FSR up to 4.1:1, and heights up to 53m.

The latest application argues that the increase in height and density under the HDA pathway allows better alignment with the locality. Building heights have been raised in the northeast of the site, and lowered in the south-west, which neighbours a school and a proposed open public space.

Under Cumberland Council’s Woodville Road Corridor Strategy, adopted on August 27, sites to the north and east have also been earmarked for development, with buildings up to 9 and 10 storeys.

The strategy mandates that projects in the Merrylands East Precinct must produce affordable and diverse housing, and a greener, more pedestrian-friendly neighbourhood.

Delays result in uplift for Merhi projects

Listed manager Elanor Investors Group took hold of the site, which held the original head office of furniture retailer John Cootes, when it acquired that company in 2014. After securing a gateway determination for development, Elanor sold the land for $36 million against a book value of $18 million in 2018.

▲ Several applications have been made on the site, including a 2020 DA that featured this rendering.

Among other applications lodged by Green Dior for the site was an approved 2020 proposal for five buildings up to eight storeys, 413 apartments, a 95-key hotel and 10,055.5sq m of retail GFA.

That proposal came with a $313-million capital investment value, and a Voluntary Planning Agreement committing Green Dior to affordable homes, a public park, and a new road, which are maintained under the current SSD application.

However, a house on the corner of the site, at 244 Woodville Road and Lansdowne Street, has been excluded from the most recent version of the project. 

Robert Dowdy of CBRE Western Sydney, who sold the address in October 2024, told The Urban Developer that it had passed hands from a residential owner to an interior designer owner-occupier. However, the house is subject to the same planning controls as its neighbouring block.

Merc Capital has demonstrated a willingness to be patient and flexible when it comes to slow-brewing development opportunities, including exploring a hotel-to-hospital conversion in Sydney’s Norwest.

The developer has made repeat attempts since 2019 at Norwest Central Plaza, located at 34-46 Brookhollow Avenue. Towers up to 40 storeys and 432 apartments were initially proposed, but the project cut yields and storeys over time in an effort to get approval.

A proposal with just 76 apartments at that site was withdrawn from the council and an upscaled application with 800 apartments was given SSD status by the HDA in May this year.