Holdmark Launches $250m HDA Precinct, Outgrows Campsie Rezoning

Holdmark has launched its latest scheme through the HDA fast-track, requesting SEARs for a $250-million, three-tower proposal at Campsie.

The project would yield 425 apartments in one building of 26 storeys and two buildings of 16 storeys.

The affordable housing component would comprise 10 per cent of the total 39,619sq m of residential floor space. Current indicative typologies include 122 one-bedroom, 239 two-bedroom and 64 three-bedroom apartments.

Gross floor area of 47,384sq m would include 2487sq m of communal open space and hold 527 carparking spaces. Design by PBD Architects would activate the central plaza with 5385sq m of underground retail space, with total commercial and retail space of 7765 square metres.

The residential component has grown and the commercial shrunk, as the project has evolved. The original HDA application called for smaller buildings of 14 storeys, 15 storeys and 24 storeys.

A single-storey podium would have held 9147sq m of commercial and retail space and the project would have yielded 357 market homes and 39 affordable housing units.

▲ The site’s slope would allow for underground retail activation around the central plaza.

The 6461sq m site at 76-90 Evaline Street and 21-23 Claremont Street is about 500m south-west of Campsie Station, where a Metro station is expected to complete this year. About 10km west of the Sydney CBD, the land holds 10 detached houses within the Campsie Town Centre. 

A council-led rezoning proposal for a Town Centre Master Plan, now under way, would put the site in the “high intensification” category. That would allow maximum floor space of 3:1 (including incentives), heights of 51m along Evaline Street and 30m along Claremont Street and a minimum non-residential FSR of 0.9:1.

Holdmark’s submission to that rezoning process argued for heights up to 86m and FSR of 6.5:1, for the HDA site. An additional 0.83:1 FSR is proposed for underground spaces. Without those allowances, Holdmark suggested, development would not be economically feasible.

▲ Retail and commercial GFA has shrunk and residential yield grown, since the original HDA application.

The developer has been an HDA enthusiast in Sydney since the pathway was introduced. Holdmark is also advancing megascale proposals at 2-10 Valentine Avenue in Parramatta, seeking 600 apartments in a 72-storey tower and 2-4 Giffnock Avenue in Macquarie Park, where an application is under way to increase yield from 400 to 741 apartments.

On the site of a former drive-in at 68-80 O’Connell Street, Caddens, Holdmark is proposing a 17-tower, $341-million precinct with 482 homes.

At the emerging Melrose Park precinct, Holdmark is leading Melrose Wharf and Melrose Park West, with thousands of homes in planning and development.