Waterloo Metro Quarter Rethink Scraps Office Highrise

A $900-million metro precinct in central Sydney is being reworked to drop an office component.

The over-station development proposed for Waterloo Metro Station is a joint venture between Mirvac and John Holland, by WL Developer.

It includes a 15-storey office tower, which was approved in 2021. 

The latest amendments to the development detailed in a scoping report from Urbis cover major changes to the Northern and Central Precincts of the planned Waterloo Metro Quarter (WMQ) over-station precinct.

In the Northern Precinct, the JV is asking that the plans for what became a 17-storey office building (upscaled from the initially planned 15-storeys) be replaced by two residential apartment towers over a shared podium. 

The residential towers would include a 5 per cent affordable component.

In the Central Precinct, a planned residential tower would be replaced by a 24-storey coliving apartment block above a non-residential podium to include community facilities and childcare.  

Preliminary architectural plans show the co-living apartments for 520 students branded with the Iglu student accommodation provider logo.

The tower would have indoor and outdoor communal amenity at levels 3 and 23, and communal space at each level. 

▲ The approved plan (left) and the new proposal that includes two residential towers to replace a single office block.

It its submission the partners said the amendements were being sought due to a “fundamental shift” in demand for office space in the wake of the pandemic. 

“While the core Sydney CBD office market has showed resilience, there has been a considerable decline in demand for city fringe office space,” the scoping report said. 

“Despite active marketing of the project since 2020 there has been minimal tenant interest.”

It said the increased need for homes and the 377,000-home target for NSW under the National Housing Accord prompted the partners to emphasise residential over commercial.

Bates Smart has designed the new proposal for the site at 150 Cope Street.

The NSW Government awarded the contract to deliver “an integrated development above and beside Waterloo Metro Station”.

“The John Holland and Mirvac Development joint venture is currently reevaluating the best use and mix for the Central and Northern Precinct in response to changing market conditions in the commercial property sector, that will deliver on the vision to create a highly vibrant, inclusive and connected community,” a Sydney Metro spokesperson told The Urban Developer.

Building on-site has begun, with construction of the WMQ basement and the Southern Precinct—a student housing tower and social housing building—under way since early 2023. 

The Waterloo Metro Station opened last year as part of the new 30km service from the end of Metro Northwest at Chatswood to North Sydney and the CBD, and southwest to Bankstown. 

The proposed amendments are far from the only substantial development from which office plans have been deleted.

Last year Gazcorp scrapped an office tower at its Emerald City project in favour of build-to-rent apartments, Samma is replacing its Southbank office component for affordable housing, and MAB Corp swapped out office for residential at its Melbourne Docklands development last month.