Byron Developer Files Plans for Town Centre Shoptop

Byron Bay developer Jason Dunn has filed plans for 22 apartments in a shoptop development within walking distance of the town’s world-famous beach.

Dunn’s JD Property Group has told Byron Shire Council it wants to develop his 2727sq m Secret Garden Site to include a central sun-lit courtyard as “an extension to the public domain.”

The development is proposed for properties at 119-123 Jonson Street, which until about four months ago housed the music venue also known as The Secret Garden.

Documents from CoreLogic show one of Dunn’s development arms—JD Kingsley Pty Ltd—acquired 119-121 Jonson Street in September 2021, paying $13 million. In April 2022 JD Kingsley purchased the next-door property at 123 Jonson Street for $7.6 million.

Dunn and former Seek company director Robert Watson are both listed as directors of the company. 

Town planner Stephen Connelly, a principal with Planners North, said existing buildings would be demolished to be replaced by three storeys of shoptop housing, commercial space and basement parking.

Estimated construction costs of the project are $23 million.

There would be four four-bedroom apartments, 12 of three bedrooms and six of two bedrooms across two upper levels under the plans by Melbourne-based Bayley Ward Architecture, that show the apartments will front Jonson Street, Kingsley Street and Middleton Lane. A rooftop deck will include a swimming pool for residents.

▲ Town planners say the 900sq m central courtyard will become an “extension to the public domain.”

The ground floor will have 1085sq m of commercial space as well as an open courtyard—designed around what the architects call “a significant existing Melaleuca tree”—of about 900 square metres.

“The project strives to create a new diverse social hub to encourage locals and visitors to come together—centred around a new public courtyard activated with retail, lifestyle and well-being to create a unique and authentic place in Byron Bay,” the architects wrote.

A single basement level will allow retail and residential parking for 85 vehicles as well as 12 bicycles.  The town planners say residents will also have space to store surfboards.

The developers have asked for a Clause 4.6 Variation to the 9m building-height specified in Byron’s local environmental plan. The lift core, stairs, roof terrace pool fencing and rooftop landscaping mean, in parts, the building’s height exceeds that.

Planners North argue in the objection those elements of the building have limited visibility from the surrounding area, and that proposed rooftop landscape planting will further screen the lift core and pool elements as viewed from the floors of any surrounding development.