Greystar Updates BtR Plans for Former Toplace Site at Zetland

Developers continue to make lemonade out of lemons as Greystar applies to update the plans associated with a former Toplace site.

Greystar acquired the DA-approved 888 Bourke Street project in 2023 for $72 million as its first build-to-rent project in New South Wales. 

The multi-national real estate developer that is headquarted in Charleston, South Carolina, has now applied to the City of Sydney Council to modify the existing plans for the prime Zetland site.

The changes reinstate three ground-floor studio apartments in Building B, bringing the total number of apartments to 190. 

They also centralise common areas in Building A with a new basement gym in Building B, and remove a rooftop open space in Building B, as they seek to “achieve the highest level of amenity for residents”, according to the modification application by Ethos Urban.

Greystar is also implementing council-requested design modifications, and altering the building facade with design work undertaken by PTW Architects.

“The proposed amendments will facilitate the community-centred BtR development that is tailored to address the internal and external amenity needs and expectations of future residents,” the application said.

They would “further improve the building’s operation as build-to-rent housing” and “align with Greystar’s intention to deliver attractive and viable residential accommodation now and into the future”.

▲ A render of Greystar’s proposal for the former Toplace site at Zetland.

The 7069sq m site has frontages to O’Dea Avenue, Bourke Street and Kingsborough Way to the south, which is approved for extension through the site to intersect with O’Dea Avenue.

The original development application was approved in 2020, and detailed the construction of a mixed-use development of twin seven-storey towers. 

After Greystar bought the site it submitted modifications to correct errors in previous applications, and in May of this year submitted another application to convert the site from retail and residential to build-to-rent.

The current application is the sixth modification to the development. It is also Greystar’s first foray into the Sydney market as the first settled site over which it holds title.

The modifications come hot on the heels of the announcements by Aland that the developer had acquired sites in Castle Hill and Parramatta, the latter in a $100-million deal.

Toplace and its director Jean Nassif were banned from operating after a series of stop-work and building-rectification orders on its apartment blocks across Sydney. 

The company called in administrators in July of last year, a month after an arrest warrant was issued for Nassif over alleged large-scale fraud.