Residential Towers Overtakes Inner-Sydney Hospital Plan

Plans for a shoptop apartment block in Sydney’s Inner West are moving ahead after a previously approved health precinct was axed. 

Rezoning proposals for a nine-storey private hospital building at Annandale, 5km west of the Sydney CBD, were approved in January after a lengthy planning process to change the site from light industrial uses.

MHA PBR Annandale Unit Trust was greenlit for the Camperdown Modern Private Hospital, a “world-class” hospital with physio and hydrotherapy pools (early concept plans pictured above).

However, according to the scoping report for the residential development, the developer had “actively pursued a health, education, creative or technology tenant” to pre-commit to the site and begin construction, but to no avail. 

The site was considered too far from Missenden Road to be viable as a major health, education or research proposition, it said. 

There is also another major private hospital planned for the St Johns College site, “further absorbing any healthcare user demand”.

The development for the project comes on the heels of the collapse last month of private healthcare operator Healthscope, highlighting the extent of cost pressures on this in-demand sector.

▲ Rendering of hospital plans for the Parramatta Road site.

Now plans submitted by PWD CD Health Trust for the 122-130 Pyrmont Bridge Road and 206 Parramatta Road site would replace the hospital plan.

Planned is an 18-to-22-storey shoptop housing tower with a four-storey podium of non-residential floor space. A double-storey commercial building at the site would make way for the latest scheme.

Fifteen per cent of the 162 apartments proposed would be allocated as affordable.

The development was declared state significant by the Housing Delivery Authority in April. 

▲ The built form in concept designs for the Annandale residential block.

A concurrent site-specific rezoning proposal will be undertaken to amend the Inner West Local Environmental Plan 2022 to allow the shoptop housing use, as the developer awaits secretary’s environmental assessment requirements (SEARs).  

The trust said it wanted to deliver housing in an area of “high amenity” given its proximity to the University of Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney and, in the Camperdown node, part of the broader Tech Central precinct spanning Central Train Station, Eveleigh/Redfern and Camperdown.

The site is also near the former WestConnex dive site at 160-168 Parramatta Road, which has been earmarked for a $450-million mixed-use precinct of 500 homes aimed at key workers. 

The Landcom-led WestConnex development will comprise buildings of up to 20 storeys, in contrast to surrounding low and midrise buildings of the area.

To date, 116 proposals of more than 45,200 potential homes have been declared state significant, with the latest tranche pushing through plans from the likes of Dexus.