ApartmentsHarrison CaithnessTue 28 Jul 26
Apartment Plan for Sydney’s Paddington Cinema Site Greenlit
Plans to build apartments above Sydney’s former Verona cinema have been greenlit, the second development approval for the prominent Paddington site after an earlier office proposal failed to proceed.
Developer WT Malouf has been waved ahead to raise a seven-storey mixed-use development at 17 Oxford Street and 2 Verona Street comprising 64 homes—including 14 affordable homes—with an end value of just under $97 million.
The approval replaces an eight-level commercial office project greenlit by the Woollahra Municipal Council in late 2023, which would have retained the cinema’s facade.
After the developer was unable to secure office tenants, the project was redesigned as a residential scheme and assessed as a state significant development.
The redevelopment will retain and restore the Verona’s two-storey brick masonry facade while adding new residential levels above.
A four-screen cinema and bar will return to the site in the third basement level.
“The part of the Verona that was always for everyone is back for everyone—the ticket, the bar, the Friday night film,” WT Malouf director Jack Joseph said.
The project also includes four three-storey terrace homes at 2 Verona Street, replacing a two-storey office building.
Two of the building’s four basement levels will offer 56 car parking spaces, while residents will have access to a rooftop terrace including a 20m infinity pool.
The site has a long history. Built in 1946 as a paper factory, 17 Oxford Street became home to the Palace Verona arthouse cinema in 1996 following its conversion by architect Tonkin Zulaikha Greer.
WT Malouf and Fenbury acquired the cinema site in 2021 before purchasing the adjoining properties at 13–15 Oxford Street and 2 Verona Street in 2024, the same year the cinema screened its final film. The combined site spans 2533 square metres.
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, which designed the 1996 cinema conversion, has also designed the redevelopment, while Richards Stanisich is responsible for the interior architecture.
About 3km from the Sydney CBD, the site is within the Paddington Urban Heritage Conservation Area, surrounded by 19th-century buildings. While the property itself is not heritage-listed, the heritage-listed Busby’s Bore water supply tunnel, constructed in 1837, runs beneath the site.
The redevelopment follows the opening earlier this year of the 109-key 25hours Hotel Sydney The Olympia, created from the neighbouring former Olympia Theatre.
Construction on the Verona site is expected to begin later this year.
