ICC to Beef Up Healthcare Portfolio

ICC Development Group is looking to beef up its healthcare portfolio as it unveils the winning design for its $200-million Private Parramatta Hospital. 

ICC chief executive Harold Dakin said their portfolio was a 70-30 split of hotels and healthcare assets, but they were aiming to build their healthcare property portfolio further.

The property developer unveiled the winning design for the Royal Parramatta Private Hospital next to Parramatta Square. 

The brick facade celebrates the retained heritage building at the base of the hospital, which helped FJMT tip out other firms in the design competition, Dakin said. 

It also complements the nearby St John’s Anglican Cathedral. 

“As part of the FJMT design, the heritage house has been retained as part of an urban strategy for the CBD private hospital,” Dakin said.

“We are hopeful we will have approval by the end of this year.”

Dakin said they would be “starting to dig” in 2024 after the second phase of DA development for the medi-hotel.

▲ The $200-million, 24-storey private hospital is the project's first phase with a second phase to add a medi-hotel to the precinct.

Before the pandemic there was a 3000-bed shortage and a 10-month waitlist for non-essential surgery, Dakin said the 24-storey, 130-bed Royal Parramatta Private Hospital would absorb just 10 per cent of the shortfall.

“Our initial estimates show that there is about a 3000-bed shortage and even with new, similar projects planned at Blacktown and Westmead, there is still a lot of demand that needs to be met, especially when you consider the increase in population growth over the coming decades,” Dakin said.

Marsden Street was originally the site of the public hospital and the precinct is flush with small specialist groups who would look to operate at the new private hospital. 

Dakin said discussions were under way with a potential healthcare operator as well as a number of doctors who had reached out directly, but he said they were “not in a rush” to make a decision, with discussions about selling the asset firmly off the table. 

ICC is also in discussions with Accor and Marriott with regards to the second phase of its development, the medi-hotel.

Dakin said they would submit a second phase DA later this year for the medi-hotel and he forecast a 12- to 18-month planning approvals period. 

The Royal Parramatta Private Hospital is a state significant development and ICC has applied for a priority assessment program listing to help expedite the process. 

Sydney’s second CBD at Parramatta is in line for a 51 per cent increase in population as part of the $3-billion Parramatta Square development. 

The Royal Parramatta Private Hospital will be the first private hospital to service the second CBD. 

The 24-storey proposal comprises 130 hospital beds, six operating theatres, day surgery units and pre-admission medical clinics. 

FJMT design director Richard Francis-Jones said the architecture firm had prioritised the heritage nature of the site in its winning design.

“The architecture of the new hospital has been carefully crafted to complement the great heritage of this important city site,” Francis-Jones said.

“The final result will be a beautifully integrated, humanly scaled composition and a new benchmark in healthcare design.”

The Royal Parramatta Private Hospital will add to ICC Development Group’s $3-billion pipeline.