What Makes Successful Urban Renewal and Placemaking?

Billbergia has produced an award-winning year, delivering major urban renewal and placemaking projects, but public trust still needs to be re-established across the industry, according to managing director John Kinsella, AM. 

This year, Billbergia secured a gold star iCIRT rating, an independent tool intended to assess both building professionals and an organisation’s capacity and trustworthiness to deliver quality assets. 

Kinsella said that being awarded an industry-best rating for the company’s conduct was something he was particularly proud of, as it demonstrated integrity in Billbergia’s business model. 

“Notwithstanding our achievements, I think it is fair to say the industry as a whole needs to further improve public trust,” he said. 

“However, both the role of the NSW government’s Building Commissioner in lifting standards and the iCIRT ratings initiative are both major steps forward in improving the public’s faith in the apartment industry. 

“In line with the four key metrics of the iCIRT rating, Billbergia embodies accountability and a best-practice approach to building quality, integrity, durability and lifecycle maintenance.

“We strive to ensure our projects are delivered to the highest standards, underpinned by an absolute commitment to safety,” Kinsella said.

This is an important part of the trust-building exercise the industry needs to undertake, he said. It is also essential to understand and respond to what people and communities want and need, particularly within masterplanned communities.

“We have always focused on creating complete communities, but expectations have changed over the decades as the shift to apartment living has accelerated in the major cities,” Kinsella said. 

“We now have an even sharper focus on placemaking and shared amenity within buildings, between buildings and across entire precincts.

“We have also been recognised for our long-term approach to sustainability, way beyond mandatory government requirements. For instance, all of our projects have been fitted with double-glazed windows and doors for over 25 years.” 

▲ Billbergia’s Wentworth Point Town Centre secured two awards from the Property Council of Australia this year.

But with the current economic climate with inflation, higher interest rates and supply-chain issues, there is inevitably an impact on industry and consumer confidence, but there were reasons to be optimistic, Kinsella said. 

“While these issues still have a way to fully play out, there’s scope for optimism over the medium to long term. 

“The key to weathering the current challenges is to have the fundamentals right through a robust approach to development and longstanding ongoing supplier relationships. 

“This includes ensuring the right mix of apartments to provide choice and delivering development projects that have good access to transport and lifestyle preferences.”

One of the projects on to which Billbergia is applying this ethos is Sydney’s Wentworth Point Town Centre—a $3.5 billion project now home to 7000 people.

Billbergia won two national awards for the precinct this year; Australian Development of the Year and Best Master Planned Community in Australia at the Property Council of Australia’s Innovation and Excellence Awards. 

Property Council chief executive Ken Morrison said of Wentworth Point that it “has produced the sense of a small city” and was an industry-leading example of the successful transformation of an industrial site into a vibrant residential community.

Kinsella said that the 11ha development came about as “a result of a creative long-term vision and the application of patient capital”, that provided funding for upfront social, community and transport infrastructure, in anticipation of the demands of a high-growth area. 

▲ Rhodes Central by Billbergia in association with SJB won Development of the Year—Mixed-Use at The Urban Developer Industry Excellence Awards this year.

Rhodes Central was another major winner this year for Billbergia, securing The Urban Developer award for Best Mixed-Use Development, as well as the Excellence in High Density Development Award from the Urban Development Institute of Australia. 

“Density done well, particularly around transport nodes, is the future for mixed-use developments to succeed,” he said. “The pandemic has made us all reassess and revalue quality urban amenity and services close to home.”

Billbergia is set for a packed year with multiple developments in the works.

“Billbergia has several projects at various stages of the development cycle. Our 50-storey mixed-used commercial, hotel development has recently topped out in North Sydney, and we are well under way in construction of the second stage of our Rhodes Central project,” Kinsella explained.

“We are also partnering with the NSW Land and Housing Corporation to deliver more than 1270 new homes with a mix of social, affordable and private market dwellings in Lidcombe, West Ryde, and Arncliffe in metropolitan Sydney.”

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