Approval Adds Loftex $102m Tower to Chatswood Pipeline
A 35-storey tower in Sydney’s Lower North Shore has secured state approval, adding to a string of major highrise decisions reshaping Chatswood’s northern CBD.
Loftex’s $102-million scheme that was proposed for 3-5 Help Street steps up from a 27-storey approval of 2024 and moved through the NSW Housing SEPP to gain extra height and floor area in exchange for infill affordable housing.
The project comprises 160 apartments above a three-level commercial podium on a 2290sq m corner site between McIntosh Street and Cambridge Lane.
Fourteen per cent of homes will be delivered as affordable supply for at least 15 years under an agreement with Link Wentworth.
Rising 115.2m, the EM BE CE-designed tower includes five basement levels with 165 car spaces plus bicycle and motorcycle bays.
Studio Geogouras has led landscaping, with communal indoor and outdoor spaces positioned across podium and tower levels.
Two dated walk-up apartment buildings on the site will be demolished as part of the works.
The approval ends a three-year planning run for Loftex, the Sydney developer behind more than $1 billion in completed residential and commercial projects.
Loftex filed its first application in mid-2023 for a 27-storey mixed-use building with 127 apartments, four commercial tenancies, a public through-site link and three basement levels.
The Sydney North Planning Panel approved this version in September 2024.
Loftex then advanced a larger state-led proposal, drawing on the Housing SEPP—NSW’s policy that offers extra height and density when affordable housing is delivered—and a 2022 LEP change lifting the block’s height cap from 20-25m to 90 metres.
A Bridging Design Excellence Strategy, endorsed by Government Architect NSW in early 2025, carried EM BE CE’s competition-winning concept into the SSD process.
The original jury reconvened as a Design Integrity Panel and backed the expanded design.
Objections during exhibition centred on height, overshadowing, privacy, traffic and cumulative development pressure across the northern CBD.
One submission argued “a mid-rise alternative would be more appropriate, better reflecting the established character of Chatswood while reducing both visual and environmental impacts”.
Residents also raised concerns about view loss, school strain and the concentration of tower proposals along Anderson, Day and McIntosh streets.
Loftex responded with updated overshadowing modelling, privacy revisions, expanded civil documentation and transport analysis showing intersections operating within acceptable limits.
Transport for NSW supported the traffic findings.
The Help Street approval follows another major Chatswood decision last week, when Bridgestone Projects secured consent for a $600-million, 33-storey tower at 44-52 Anderson Street.
Maison le Ciel includes 123 apartments—39 affordable—after the developer refiled through the state pathway after a 2024 panel refusal of its earlier 23-to-25-storey scheme.
A separate SSD approval landed on November 19 for a 34-storey mixed-use tower at 54-56 Anderson Street by Anderson Chatswood Development Pty Ltd, vehicle of China-based developer Changfa, Huicen Development and Lavender Asset Management.
The $94.7-million project will deliver 117 apartments above a commercial podium and infill affordable housing under the Housing SEPP.
LFD Developments also gained consent last week for a 35-storey tower at 5-9 Gordon Avenue with 91 apartments—22 of them affordable—after scrapping an earlier 25-storey design once new SEPP incentives allowed additional height and density.
More proposals remain in play across Chatswood’s northern CBD.
Hyecorp’s $103.3-million, 28-storey scheme at 37 Archer Street is on exhibition with 125 apartments—28 of them affordable—above two floors of office space, double-height retail units and food-and-beverage tenancies.
Develotek is progressing a 34-storey tower at 691-699 Pacific Highway, costed at $107 million, with 101 apartments, ground-floor retail, resident amenities on level two and eight basement levels.
And the once-maligned “Nightmare on Anderson Street” site has returned with a $311-million twin-tower scheme by Aeon Residence Chatswood.
Recast as The Angophora, the SSD proposes 258 apartments across 33 and 23 storeys, including 56 affordable homes managed by Bridge Housing.
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