OtherRenee McKeownWed 20 Sep 23

IPM Property Files Shoptop Housing Plan at Palm Beach

The IPM Property development is two doors down from Barrenjoey House which was built in 1923.

The battle to build shoptop housing next to Barrenjoey House continues with the latest plans now before the Northern Beaches Council.

IPM Property’s Steven Sroba and Chris Webster are behind the proposed modern development opposite Palm Beach Wharf, at 1112–1116 Barrenjoey Road, Palm Beach.

Koichi Takada Architects designed what appears as a five-storey development with a rooftop pool on the 1361sq m sloped-site for the Sydney-based developers.

It is, however, a staggered three-to-four-storey development, with two ground floor retail tenancies, seven large apartments and one level of basement parking.

This application follows the refusal nearby for tech rich-lister Robin Khuda from AirTrunk who sought to amend a 2014 shoptop development on the other side of Barrenjoey House.

Multiple submissions were made against these plans, which were rejected in April. An appeal had been lodged.

It is yet to be seen if the community will be more supportive of IPM Property’s plans, which are a big change from the Lesiuk Architect designed application approved in 2010.

Render of a modern shoptop apartment. It has lots of landscaping and bamboo-coloured elements.

▲ The IPM Property development is two doors down from Barrenjoey House which was built in 1923.

There were also dozens of community submissions against the five-apartment-plus-commercial development by the Anastasopoulos family of similar scale.

Records show the family sold the site in mid-2021 for $12 million along with its newly renovated beach house, grocer, ferry ticket shop, retail business on the site.

“[There’s] superior design quality, amenity, streetscape, landscape, sustainability and heritage conservation outcomes compared to the shop top housing development approved by [then Pittwater] Council,” BBF Town Planners said in the new application.

“The proposed development is sympathetic to its context and hillside location and contemporary in its use of materials and forms in response to local climate and the seaside village character anticipated by the Palm Beach Locality Statement.”