Bid to Lift Under-Construction Apartment Tower at Ryde

A tower that is part of an under-construction mixed-use project in the Shepherds Bay waterfront redevelopment area on Sydney’s Parramatta River could rise from 10 to 14 storeys.

Developer Holdmark Property Group has filed plans to add three levels and 37 apartments to the residential tower at 155-157 Church Street at Ryde, near Meadowbank and about 13km north-west of the Sydney CBD.

The plans are on exhibition runs until March 17.

Proposed changes would add $17 million to the $55-million project filed in 2019 and approved by the Land and Environment Court in September 2021 after Holdmark appealed council refusal.

Approval covers a two-building mixed-use scheme combining retail, residential apartments and serviced accommodation arranged around a public plaza.

Original design work (pictured at top), prepared by Cox Architecture through a design competition, allowed for demolition of three two-storey warehouse buildings and construction of a residential tower beside a lower commercial building.

Retail space occupies the commercial building, including a supermarket, five retail shops and two commercial tenancies, while the tower accommodates residential apartments and serviced apartments.

Approved plans included 43 apartments and 72 serviced apartments supported by four basement levels providing 295 parking spaces.

▲ Design Formation Architects’ modification shows additional residential levels proposed above the approved Shepherds Bay mixed-use development at Ryde.

Current plans would increase the residential apartment component in the tower from 43 to 80 apartments while retaining serviced apartments as a separate accommodation use.

Height uplift has been linked to affordable housing, with Holdmark offering either about 5 per cent of the additional floor space as affordable homes or an equivalent payment to council.

A 2023 modification previously increased the serviced apartment component from 72 to 84.

Planning documents indicate the revised scheme could reach 14 storeys, with three additional levels proposed and an approved mezzanine converted into a full storey under the LEP definition.

▲ Construction under way at Holdmark’s Ryde development, where plans propose lifting the residential tower from 10 to 14 storeys.

The project forms part of the Shepherds Bay redevelopment, a Parramatta River waterfront precinct first endorsed by the state in 2013 under the former Part 3A planning framework.

Concept approval for the precint allows up to 2033 homes, 11,300sq m of commercial floor space and 2976 parking spaces across multiple stages along the Parramatta River foreshore.

Holdmark’s 3953sq m corner site, bounded by Church, Well and Parsonage streets, is about 100m from the river.

Shepherds Bay is transforming former industrial land into a higher-density mixed-use neighbourhood, with several residential stages completed and others under construction.

Four major residential stages lodged in 2015 proposed more than 1600 apartments across buildings up to 11 storeys, alongside foreshore plazas, pedestrian links and community spaces.