Build-to-Rent Campus to Transform Inner City Art Precinct

Plans have been lodged to transform Precinct 75 in Sydney’s inner west into a $145-million, 230-apartment build-to-rent campus.

Home acquired the site in November 2020 for more than $84 million with a vision to redevelop the industrial precinct, retaining many of the gritty brick buildings and adding three new buildings to help address housing affordability in Sydney.

The 15,240sq m site straddles Mary, Edith and Roberts streets in the heart of St Peters, a historic industrial area that has slowly been urbanised.

According to development application documents, the staged redevelopment of the site would entail the construction of three new buildings, the reconstruction of another building, and the alteration and additions to four existing buildings.

The heights vary across the site from two storeys to a maximum of nine storeys. A commons area and pocket park would also be created.

According to the Ethos Urban report, there will also be mixed-use space comprising more than 12,000sq m of office space, light industrial, retail, restaurants and art studio space as part of the Inner West Council’s Artists’ Studio agreement.

“This facility is intended to be a central focal point of the Precinct 75 community and has been designed as a flexible space capable of hosting a variety of creative uses including as arts and crafts workshops, a flexible gallery exhibit area, and as studios for local artists,” the report stated.

“The delivery of the council Artists’ Studio will be prioritised early in the Precinct 75 redevelopment staging process to ensure that this important space is available for use by tenants, residents and visitors as soon as possible.”

Home is an unlisted real estate fund that specialises in apartment builds in the build-to-rent space. It currently has six fully-funded projects under way in Australia—at Richmond, Southbank and Docklands in Melbourne, and Parramatta, St Leonards and St Peters in Sydney.

Home engaged Cox Architecture to develop the plans for the site, and the reinvigoration of existing buildings.

According to the design report, the development would retain the “existing creative and eclectic character of Precinct 75” while refurbishing and adding new flexible light industrial and commercial floorspace to the site.

The staged development of the integrated mixed-use site would focus initially on the construction of the new buildings, and the reconstruction of another building to deliver “high quality build-to-rent housing” and ease housing affordability pressures for people in Sydney’s inner west.

Stage 2 comprises the alterations and additions to reconfigure the existing buildings and additional levels and extensions.