Developer Refiles Sydney Office-Hotel Conversion

Plans for a boutique hotel that would adaptively reuse three adjacent blocks at Taylor Square in inner Sydney are back on the table.

The project proposed for 191-201 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst to renovate a prominent corner building and two adjacent sites constructed between 1907 and 1910 has been submitted by developer Save the Robots.

It marks a renotification of amended plans as part of an appeal to the Land and Environment Court in April, 2023. 

Plans were initially filed in June, 2022, but it was determined that they had not demonstrated sufficient reason for noncompliance with building height regulations in the Sydney Local Environment Plan, and that it failed to deliver an urban design outcome appropriate for the location. 

It was also argued that the development detrimentally impacted the view corridor of Oxford Street, and did not respect the heritage fabric of the corner building, among other issues. 

The new development application by Urbis attempts to address these issues in the hopes that the existing commercial building on site be approved for reuse as an art hotel to “rejuvenate” the existing buildings “into a cohesive and singular development”.

If approved, the new designs will offer basement hospitality tenancies, a ground-floor cafe and restaurant, hotel rooms, a gallery space and a rooftop bar. 

▲ The plans amalgamate three existing commercial buildings in the Oxford Street Cultural and Creative Precinct.

The hotel use will consolidate three existing buildings on a 481.6sq m site fronting Taylor Square and Oxford Street, restoring and adaptively reusing the site at 191-195 Oxford Street.

Meanwhile, 199 and 201 Oxford Street, which have been significantly altered over time, will be connected to the newly renovated building with their street-level elevations restored. 

The facades of two of the non-heritage-listed Edwardian buildings will be retained, but internal structures will be demolished and reconstructed. 

The designs by Neeson Murcutt and Neille Architecture architects show an art gallery with 21 hotel rooms interspersed throughout the building.

Hotel facilities, including a reception and lobby would be on the ground floor and accessed from Flinders Street.

Save the Robots is associated with Sydney property investor Ping Jin Ng. The developer was behind the lauded revival of the city’s historic Paramount House at Surry Hills.

The Oxford Street development is not the only tricky project in the works, with a number of other heritage-related proposals currently with the City of Sydney, including a mixed-use development at 33 Oxford Street at Surry Hills.