Sydney developer Holdmark Property Group’s latest six-tower apartment project is moving ahead after receiving gateway approval.
The project will upgrade and upsize the Chester Square shopping centre in the south-west Sydney suburb of Canterbury-Bankstown.
Gateway approval has now been secured to amend the Canterbury-Bankstown Local Environment Plan (LEP) to increase building heights for the site at 1 Leicester Square to 60 metres.
The revised planning proposal would enable the redevelopment of the site to accommodate 515 apartments across six buildings and achieve “a profound urban design improvement and provide a placemaking catalyst for transformational change within the centre”.
Under the site-specific planning proposal submitted by the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, the permitted height has been raised to 18 storeys and it has increased floor space ratio to 4:1, with 5 per cent affordable housing mandated.
The council said in a letter to the Department of Planning that the proposal would support the delivery of additional housing and jobs as set out in the Greater Sydney Regional Plan, “A Metropolis of Three Cities”.
The plans have been in the works for some time—the council initially resolved to submit the planning proposal in 2020 after initial proposals were filed in 2019.
It will have a maximum of 12,400sq m of retail GFA “to manage traffic impacts on the surrounding road network”, in addition to a 2000sq m public plaza and another 2064sq m of community facilities.
The Chester Square project marks a $500-million investment in “Sydney’s most rapidly expanding residential and employment areas”, a Holdmark spokeswoman told The Urban Developer.
“This planning milestone is a welcome step on the path to supporting current and future residents and workers with enhanced community facilities, more green space and quality new homes.”
The Chester Square shopping centre was sold in 2017 for $68.5 million with a yield of 3.78 per cent, at the time breaking national records.
Under chief executive and founder Sarkis Nassif, Holdmark has been busy during the past 18 months, filing plans for a 59-storey skyscraper in the Sydney CBD as well as a masterplan project at Kingswood that would deliver more than 500 apartments.
