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<p>The Uniting Church in Australia has won approval for modifications to a planned 16-storey aged-care facility in Sydney’s west, brought about in part by the findings of last year’s Royal Commission into aged-care quality and safety.</p><p>In changes approved by the, Parramatta City Council this month, the church will reconfigure accommodation layouts in the $86-million development.&nbsp; There will also be an overall building height increase of about 1.7 metres.</p><p>In development consent granted by the Sydney Central City Planning Panel in September 2020, the church was allowed a similarly sized tower with a mix of assisted living (ALAs), independent seniors living (ILUs), and care apartments (CAs) as well as a 60-bed residential aged-care facility.</p><p>The new plans remove the assisted-living and the care-apartment components, replacing them with a total of 116 independent-living units.</p><p>In lodging the modifications, town planners Ethos Urban said the changes were made partly in response to the findings of the Royal Commission, made public in March last year.</p><p>“Some modifications, in particular the change in unit mix and type, are also a response to Uniting’s evolving definition of assisted living, which has developed since the original application was lodged in 2019,” Ethos Urban wrote.</p><p>The tower—planned for a 2780sq-m site at 45-53 Oxford Street in Epping, about 20km north-west of Sydney—will now have a 57-bed aged-care facility and 116 independent living units. Ten of those will be single bedroom, 68 will be two-bedroom and the three-bedroom capacity now increases to 38 units.</p><div id="4yHa1m6J1Wm8IEGsx0FyUq"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/6fdbtZDNZNaYJGQPz24Sy9/08a9b29f422dcbd52e2b27c99c90f0d9/Uniting_Church_1_Mid.jpg" alt="Uniting Church was first given development consent for the 16-storey building in September 2020." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/6fdbtZDNZNaYJGQPz24Sy9/08a9b29f422dcbd52e2b27c99c90f0d9/Uniting_Church_1_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ The Uniting Church was first given development consent for the 16-storey building in September 2020.</span></div><div><br></div></div><p>“The replacement of ALAs and CAs with ILUs aligns with the aged-care industry’s move away from formalised low-care accommodation,” Ethos Urban said, “with community care replacing this accommodation type to deliver care services into a resident’s accommodation of choice.</p><p>“The ILUs will enable residents to age in place whilst having access to support services available in the basement, ground floor and the residential aged-care facility on levels one and two.”</p><p>The church’s head of property development, Adrian Ciano, said it was committed to making assisted living services, and home and community care, accessible to all Uniting residents, regardless of the type of accommodation they called home.&nbsp;</p><p>“This steadfast commitment plays a role in the design of all Uniting developments, including Oxford Street, Epping,” he said.</p><p>The approved changes also mean the rooftop-level function room will now include a cinema and multipurpose room giving residents “an improved facility for recreation, socialising and events”.</p><p>There will be four levels of basement parking, a chapel, gymnasium, indoor swimming pool, hair salon and food and drink facilities.</p><p>In the original application, the church successfully sought a Clause 4.6 Variation, allowing the development to exceed Hornsby local environmental plan’s maximum building height of 48m, by 6.1 metres.&nbsp; The new approval allows 1.7m higher than that again.</p><div id="46XaeY30lCY8gERXithkO2"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/4nAlmDcFT5Cio3aWlIVz2Z/a6d8eefb6b743c6e7313b736a02a7d25/Uniting_Church_2_Mid.jpg" alt="The new plans remove both the assisted living and the care apartment components, replacing them with a total of 116 independent living units." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/4nAlmDcFT5Cio3aWlIVz2Z/a6d8eefb6b743c6e7313b736a02a7d25/Uniting_Church_2_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ The new plans remove the assisted-living and the care-apartment components, replacing them with a total of 116 independent living units.</span></div><div><br></div></div><p>During that same process, Ethos Urban carried out an analysis of the likely demand for seniors’ housing and aged-care services in the catchment area. It showed the over-65 population is the fastest-growing and will expand by almost 18,000 by 2036.</p><p>“There is also a strong trend towards downsizing in this age group,” Ethos Urban said, “with occupancy of detached housing falling from 82 per cent in the 65-69 age group to 42 per cent in the 85-plus group, supporting the provision of smaller dwellings for the aged.”</p><p>The Uniting Church in Australia was founded in 1977, and with about 2000 congregations is Australia’s third-biggest Christian denomination, behind the Catholic and Anglican churches.</p><p>The church says it operates more than 200 aged-care services, with more than 14,000 clients in residential and community care programs, many of those within Parramatta council area.</p><p>Ciano said they offered aged-care services in Westmead, Ermington and North Parramatta, along with independent-living units in Epping, Beecroft, Granville, Wentworthville, Pendle Hill and Westmead.</p><p>He said the&nbsp;church had&nbsp;owned the Oxford Street property for more than 25 years.</p><p>“Construction on the new development is expected to start mid-2023, following the demolition of the existing property in Autumn 2023,” he said.</p>

The Uniting Church in Australia has won approval for modifications to a planned 16-storey aged care facility in Sydney’s west, brought about in part by the findings of last year’s Royal Commission into aged care quality and safety.

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<p>Privately-held developer Deicorp has wasted little time in breaking ground on its $445-million four-tower project in Castle Hill’s historic Showground precinct.</p><p>The Sydney-based residential and commercial developer won approval for the 430-unit, mixed-use project about 35km north-west of the Sydney CBD just three months ago.</p><p>The Independent Planning Commission signed off on the 20-storey residential towers, which are part of the Hills Showground Station Precinct masterplan.&nbsp;&nbsp;That plan will&nbsp;eventually&nbsp;deliver up to 1620 dwellings and about 14,000sq m of non-residential space.</p><p>The <a data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/four-tower-plan-castle-hill-deicorp-hills-showground" href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/four-tower-plan-castle-hill-deicorp-hills-showground" target="_blank" rel="noopener">development application for the project</a> was filed in August last year.</p><p>Deicorp is charged with delivering the Doran Drive Precinct within the&nbsp;Showground precinct—one of eight station precincts along the Sydney Metro Northwest urban corridor.</p><p>Deicorp founder and chairman Fouad Deiri said he was delighted to turn the first sods on the 7969-sq-m site.</p><p>“Hills Showground Village will bring a new level of convenience for its residents and the community, with its easy access to cafes, restaurants, retail and supermarkets, green spaces and a public plaza, all within 100m of the metro station,” Deiri said.</p><p>The approved development will include a three-level 10,935-sq-m retail podium with a supermarket, specialty shops and commercial areas that sit beneath the four residential towers.&nbsp;</p><p>The development will be the second collaboration between Deicorp and Landcom—the New South Wales government’s land and property arm, in this case responsible for land owned by Sydney Metro. Work is well under way on the first project, a 987-unit mixed-use project at Tallawong, which also sits on the doorstep of the Northwest Metro.</p><p>“Hills Showground Village will continue Deicorp’s strong track record of delivering transport-connected projects,” Deiri said.</p><div id="38sCzTBQKWfrbD9H5MnIqz"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/3buiHbSQ96RocOT5fcw5V5/42130e9db264533b4ef472de5b6e248b/Deicorp_Breaks_Ground_Mid.jpg" alt="A consortium of western Sydney investors is preparing to sell this recently-approved development, also within the Showground Station Priority Precinct." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/3buiHbSQ96RocOT5fcw5V5/42130e9db264533b4ef472de5b6e248b/Deicorp_Breaks_Ground_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ A consortium of western Sydney investors is preparing to sell this recently approved development, also within the Showground Station Priority Precinct.<br></span></div><div><br></div></div><p>Meanwhile, a consortium of western Sydney investors is preparing to sell a Castle Hill shovel-ready development, just 500m from the Deicorp project, and also within the Showground Station Priority Precinct.</p><p>Architects Cornerstone Design last week won approval for a development application, lodged on behalf of the consortium, for two six-storey buildings of 68 apartments, with development costs of about $20 million.</p><p>The unnamed investors will lodge paperwork for a strata subdivision of the four lots at 29-31 Partridge and 15-17 Ashford avenues.</p><p>It is understood the consortium is close to finalising the sale of the 4175-sq-m site together with the development approval.</p><p>Online documents show the three companies acquired all four adjoining lots between January 2019 and September 2020, paying a total of $8.625 million.</p>

Privately-held developer Deicorp has wasted little time in breaking ground on its $445 million four-tower project in Castle Hill’s historic showground precinct.

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<p>Michael Power had a problem.</p><p>He needed ox hair, lots of it. But there hadn’t been oxen, or bullocks, in any great numbers in downtown Hobart for 120 years.</p><p>He could have substituted horsehair—he liked to keep a couple of bags of it around, just in case—but he didn’t have nearly enough, he realised as he apraised the challenge ahead at the heritage site.</p><p>“It’s easy enough to find and I’ve got a couple of people who supply me, but I wouldn't have had enough for this job. People just throw it out.</p><p>“Perhaps if I’d had a couple of years to notify everyone…”</p><p>He thought about goat hair, which he’d imported from the United Kingdom in the past, but when he phoned his supplier they had run out. And in any case, last time there had been all that trouble with the Australian Border Force. He hadn’t seen his goat hair for weeks.</p><p>Meanwhile, about 15m away and up on the roof of the same building, James Barker and son Django were facing their own challenges.</p><p>It is possible to purchase the 40mm copper clouts they wanted in Australia, but not in the volume they needed. They eventually found the nails in Belgium—all 40,000 of them.</p><p>“Yeah, pretty much all of the materials, the copper rivets, all the fixings that we use, everything’s either out of Europe or the US,” Barker says.</p><div id="38vbGsZuflfzCd68Vg2Swu"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/7k8oy9R8skTcfmBhEnDM2X/aa8ebd7f17aa1b894d54a28fbba24410/4.jpg" alt="Roofing plumber James Barker and son Django working on the bond store roof." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/7k8oy9R8skTcfmBhEnDM2X/aa8ebd7f17aa1b894d54a28fbba24410/4.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ Roofing plumber James Barker and son Django working on the bond store roof.&nbsp;<br><br></span></div></div><p>Barker is a roofing plumber by trade and Power a solid plasterer. Together, they are heritage tradespeople—highly skilled in an increasingly small world—and their challenges for this latest job are not just sourcing materials, but the sheer numbers involved.</p><p>Those copper clouts were needed to secure 22,000 slates to about 3500m of battening across more than 600sq m of roof. And don’t forget almost three tonnes of lead for the ridging, valleys and box gutters.&nbsp;</p><p>In the middle of next month, the two men and their teams will finish the job renovating key elements of Hobart’s Tasmanian Museum and Gallery (TMAG) which safeguards about&nbsp;800,000 objects as diverse as fossils and fine art.</p><p>Australia’s second-oldest museum began life in the 1820s as a warehouse storing supplies for the Van Diemen’s Land colony, including dry goods such as grain and bonded goods including tobacco and spirits.</p><p>For a while it housed&nbsp;the country’s oldest scientific society, the Royal Society of Tasmania.</p><p>Fast forward 200 years when in April commercial builders Hansen Yuncken won a $2.5-million tender from the Tasmanian government to replace the slate roof of the bond store and re-render the exterior to preserve the historic brickwork.</p><p>“For us this job is a complete change from the status quo,” project manager Alexander Swift says.</p><p>“A typical construction for Hansen Yuncken is complex, concrete and structural steel, big… that’s our bread and butter.</p><p>“But this is about slowing down and trying to understand how things would have been done previously. Trying to understand their methods, really delving deep into detail, leveraging off our specialist tradespeople and then trying to facilitate works so they can best do their artistry.”</p><div id="35Gvtz3dIU2KZKCn4ATaWh"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/5rwqgY5k0mRfku22NGeOOx/97f3a7b698f4cbd74591c4bf9764740a/5.jpg" alt="Purcell architects and heritage consultants’ Lucy Burke-Smith on site." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/5rwqgY5k0mRfku22NGeOOx/97f3a7b698f4cbd74591c4bf9764740a/5.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ Purcell architects and heritage consultants’ Lucy Burke-Smith and Hansen Yunken project manager Andrew Swift on site.<br><br></span></div></div><p>Lucy Burke-Smith, an associate partner with Purcell architects and heritage consultants, says the origins of the job go back to 2018, when Purcell&nbsp;was&nbsp;called in to address some rising damp and salt attack issues within&nbsp;the walls of the&nbsp;bond&nbsp;store.</p><p>And then the rain came. On May 11 that year, more than 200mm fell on Hobart, much of it in one six-hour period.</p><p>The extreme flooding caused movement in the historic Watergate wall, a brick-and-stone structure with a centrally positioned entrance built in 1826 to connect the bond store to the adjacent commissariat building.</p><p>“So the package [of work] really got extended at that point, not only to deal with the bond store, but the imminent risk of a potential collapse of the Watergate wall, which is an incredibly significant feature,” said Burke-Smith.&nbsp;</p><p>Hansen Yuncken has something of a track record with complex heritage projects in Tasmania, including the Port Arthur penitentiary precinct conservation program and, more recently, the Hobart’s Anglesea Barracks, the oldest Australian army barracks still in use.</p><p>“Those projects sort of opened my eyes to this heritage world and allowed me to embrace the skills and the sensitivities and sympathies that are required to undertake this sort of work,” Swift said.</p><p>He, Burke-Smith, Power and Barker have worked together before, on a variety of heritage projects. The respect for each other is clear.</p><div id="35Gvtz3dIU2KZKCn4ATaWh"></div><p>“It’s one thing to be able to scope and specify and nominate the schedule of work,” says Burke-Smith, “but one of the challenges that I think that the contractors face in delivering this, is how to program it all.&nbsp;</p><p>“So for example, if you take quite simply just the preparation of some of the lime mortars that are used in conservation projects like this, it’s not something that you typically buy off the shelf, when we’re looking to gather all of the components.”</p><div id="5BCjII5S84yECK0KLoGTop"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/7w4MjV4NiGY5KywXNm60vf/92b9c90058218bf533c2433839fe42dd/3.jpg" alt="Solid plasterer Michael Power: " data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/7w4MjV4NiGY5KywXNm60vf/92b9c90058218bf533c2433839fe42dd/3.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ Solid plasterer Michael Power and fibre is mixed with the plaster for the heritage restoration.<br><br></span></div></div><p>Sand, for example.</p><p>Power, a 60-year-old Irishman from County Waterford, imported sand from Newcastle in New South Wales, where he’d spent his first years in Australia.</p><p>“I could have used the local sand,” he says. “I still would have had to import it from northern Tasmania and I would have had to mix it. But that’s just sort of a tradesman’s thing.&nbsp;</p><p>“Newcastle has this very good stuff called Rosebrook sand. And I got that for a couple of reasons, it’s well graded and it’s clean. And I suppose I had an opportunity with a job of this size and I wanted to work within a setting that I was comfortable with.</p><p>“It’s a really good sand.”</p><p>The convicts, he says, probably used silt from the river, which 200 years ago would have come right up to the building’s edge.</p><p>“They didn't have the opportunity to go around and source all the good sands like we had. Which could be why the render hasn’t lasted.”</p><div id="2AwQ7PBaSExl8Zriusxigg"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/2JEZJZUh8zPZ3oCs0Wh5Xu/38dc4f6d6701f8f1fa290445c528cf0c/1.jpg" alt="The Watergate wall and bond store at the Hobart museum and gallery precinct." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/2JEZJZUh8zPZ3oCs0Wh5Xu/38dc4f6d6701f8f1fa290445c528cf0c/1.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ The Watergate wall and bond store at the Hobart museum and gallery precinct.<br><br></span></div></div><p>Power says he spent a lot of time asking himself: “What would they have done?”.</p><p>Back on the roof, James Barker had wanted Welsh slate—produced in the giant Penrhyn quarry since the 13th&nbsp;century and highly regarded for the consistency of its colour and texture.&nbsp;</p><p>Heritage architect Burke-Smith says it was commonly used in early Australian roof construction, first arriving in the colonies as ballast in the hulls of trading ships.</p><p>But Barker found it was impossible to get.</p><p>“I’m sure if we were in Europe, we might be able to get it,” he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;“But the quarries are running short of it in Wales. And we’re at the bottom of the world.</p><p>“I got a generic email from my supplier probably two months ago, begging us to stop asking when it was going to be coming back online. There is none in Australia.”</p><p>He chose Spanish Del Carmen slate from the&nbsp;Cabrera Mountains of north-west Spain,&nbsp;instead.</p><p>And got on with the job of looking for copper rivets with a star-shaped head (most in Australia are hexagonal) and a rubber grommet to waterproof the fastening.&nbsp; Again, he found them in Belgium, where there’s an unbroken tradition of slate rooves and copper fixtures.</p><p>He says it has been a great job.</p><p>“It was certainly an enjoyable job for us. And very, very challenging. But those two things go hand in hand—if it’s challenging, we enjoy it more. So yeah, from our point of view, it’s been a lot of fun.”</p><p>Both tradies say there’s no shortage of heritage work and are booked until mid-2024. Each is doing his part to ensure their disappearing skills survive a little longer.</p><div id="5dRMcL4tY5RjSIntNmSbMe"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/oexliWvTMFEmc0VzJSP1P/23b567edc4940dd9e0f7c0402e730aca/2.jpg" alt="The Barkers’ trade is not one for those with a fear of heights." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/oexliWvTMFEmc0VzJSP1P/23b567edc4940dd9e0f7c0402e730aca/2.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ James and son Django’s trade is not one for those with a fear of heights.<br><br></span></div></div><p>Barker, whose grandfather owned a quarry in the Beqaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, has apprenticed his 20-year-old son who becomes the fourth generation to work stone and slate.</p><p>“He’s really embracing it, which is great. It was part of the deal for me to take him on as an apprentice. It was really important for me that he was making his own path.”</p><p>Power boasts he has the only solid plastering apprentice in Tasmania, although he has to send him to Victoria to complete his TAFE component.</p><p>Earlier in the year the two spent three months preparing the mix of three parts sand to one part of lime putty, which then sat under water in sealed containers to cure. While he waited Power experimented with iron sulfate through limewashes—just the way convicts would have done it—to try to replicate the original orange colour. It would have been easier to use an oxide, but he says oxides tend to fade.</p><p>And he searched for 1000 hand-made, replacement bricks, soft enough so as not to disturb the original bricks they’d be resting against in Watergate wall. He found a man in South Australia who makes five or six bricks a day, and who agreed to produce a mix of three different sizes, because no two convict bricks are exactly the same size and shape.</p><p>And he looked for animal hair.</p><p>“In the end we used a manufactured hair, polypropylene. Obviously that’s not heritage, but we just couldn’t get enough animal hair,” he concedes.</p><p>And it’s an honest alternative to teams of bullocks grazing the waterfront at Sandy Bay.<br><br></p><hr><p><br><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;"><strong>Main image of the museum courtyard by John Gollings AM </strong><br><a href="gollings.com.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-mce-href="gollings.com.au">gollings.com.au</a> <a href="gollings.com.au" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-mce-href="gollings.com.au">johngollings.com</a><br><br></span></p><hr><p><strong><br>You are currently experiencing <em>The Urban Developer</em> Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. </strong><a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/membership-plans" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/membership-plans"><strong>Click here to learn more.</strong></a></p><div id="2GhuueZl01Zwo2aFfjNVi2"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/12UMq5eMSEOh0QxJVBYaDt/d7507cf4ceb1365cc9ce7eaff84d06cc/tud___banner.jpg" alt="TUD + Banner" data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/12UMq5eMSEOh0QxJVBYaDt/d7507cf4ceb1365cc9ce7eaff84d06cc/tud___banner.jpg"></picture></div>

In the middle of next month, two heritage tradies and their teams will finish  job renovating key elements of Hobart’s Tasmanian Museum and Gallery (TMAG) which safeguards about 800,000 objects as diverse as fossils and fine art.  It's not been without it's challenges.

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<p>South-east Queensland property developer Keylin has blamed widespread market volatility for its decision to cut one of the two 15-storey towers it had planned for Brisbane’s CBD northern fringe.</p><p>Approved plans for nearly 100 hotel rooms have been shelved and radically scaled-back changes to the development have been submitted to Brisbane City Council.</p><p>Keylin had won council approval in July last year for twin towers over a consolidated podium with 113 apartments and 120 short-term accommodation suites in Spring Hill.</p><p>Then in August this year the developer successfully applied for minor changes, dropping to 109 residential units and 96 hotel rooms. Hotel provider Accor had announced the city’s first Movepick Hotel would be housed in one of the two art-deco towers.</p><p>Those plans have been cancelled and Keylin’s managing director Louis Cheung said the partners were working on an alternative location for the hotel.</p><p>A total of 121 apartments will remain in the single tower, to be known as Oria, on the 3700sq m site fronting Brisbane’s Victoria Park redevelopment.</p><div id="4ePJ57o7mQW5rqzffMIZbN"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/6YjhyLr64Sf4zPfRXXnK9g/060a51dbce712e7c163523260a539710/Keylin_Cuts_Towers_2_Mid.jpg" alt="The south-east Queensland developer says it will now concentrate on the residential element of it's Spring Hill project. " data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/6YjhyLr64Sf4zPfRXXnK9g/060a51dbce712e7c163523260a539710/Keylin_Cuts_Towers_2_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ The south-east Queensland developer says it will now concentrate on the residential element of it's Spring Hill project.<br></span></div><div><br></div></div><p>“We have decided to proceed with a competitive construction tender for Oria to provide the best opportunity to secure an acceptable construction outcome,” Cheung said. “Secondly, we have made the decision not to proceed with the hotel on the site.”</p><p>Cheung placed the blame for the cutbacks squarely at the feet of Australia’s construction sector and the immense pressure it is under.</p><p>He said rising supply costs and labour shortages were impacting every facet of development nation-wide.</p><p>“As a residential developer, Keylin takes our responsibility to mitigate potential risks, and protect our clients’ investments, very seriously,” Cheung said.</p><p>“And in September we spoke with all our purchasers at Oria to inform them of our strategy to safeguard the development during this widespread market volatility.”</p><div id="NdAj3jOpNlyV17hbeWS99"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/6WJz8JNMbLF0OhY4CqrT5m/ff588b9829f42825157d32edd1ae246a/Keylin_Cuts_Towers_1_Mid.jpg" alt="The original plans had called for a Movenpick hotel to be housed in one of the two art-deco towers.  That idea has been shelved." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/6WJz8JNMbLF0OhY4CqrT5m/ff588b9829f42825157d32edd1ae246a/Keylin_Cuts_Towers_1_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ The original plans had called for a Movenpick hotel to be housed in one of the two art-deco towers. That idea has been shelved.</span></div><div><br></div></div><p>Keylin has lodged documents seeking more changes, this time removing one of the two buildings while they concentrate on purely residential.</p><p>With the second building gone, the revised plans call for the removal of the podium and all food, drink and function facilities, as well as a reconfiguration of basement parking in the remaining MAS Architecture Studio designed-tower.</p><p>Keylin will do away with the two single-bedroom apartments, but add another 12 in various configurations.&nbsp; There will be 56 two-bedroom, 39 three-bedroom and 26 four-bedroom apartments in the fresh plans.</p><p>“The most significant changes include the relocation of the pool to the rooftop to adjoin the other recreation spaces and introducing additional apartments at ground level and on level 14,” Cheung said.</p><p>The largely residential developer paid $9.25 million for the L-shaped site at 447 Gregory Terrace in July of 2020. It has frontages of 27m on Gregory Terrace and 78m on Warry Street.</p><p>In lodging the change application, Mewing Planning Consultants said the development would continue to make a positive contribution to the vibrancy and activation of the area.</p><p>“The development will continue to support the increased community activity, generated by Victoria Park and other facilities,” Mewing Planning said in documents.</p><p>When first mooted, Keylin’s hotel plans were part of a <a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/hotel-development-sector-australia-planning-construction-post-pandemic" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/hotel-development-sector-australia-planning-construction-post-pandemic">mini boom in hotel development in Australia</a>, defying the slow return of the big-spending international travellers.</p><p>Keylin said the early works phase of construction was nearing completion and it expected to appoint a builder for the main works phase in 2023.</p>

South-east Queensland property developer Keylin has blamed widespread market volatility for its decision to cut one of the two, 15-storey towers they had planned for the city’s northern fringe.

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<p>Cumberland City Council has given the go-ahead to a former mayor to build a 14-storey, $38.4 million mixed-use tower across six adjoining lots at Lidcombe in western Sydney.</p><p>A key element of Marque Eight’s approval is that four floors of the building will be given over to 83 rooms <a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/covid-challenges-opportunities-for-co-living" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/covid-challenges-opportunities-for-co-living">under a co-living plan</a>, which will include common break-out areas, and some shared kitchen and bathroom facilities.</p><p>Another eight floors will house a mix of 100 residential apartments, while four commercial tenancies will fill the ground floor. Three underground levels will provide parking for 162 cars.</p><p>In lodging the application in May of this year, privately held Sydney developer Marque Eight sought to take advantage of a recent change in height restrictions to build to the maximum 45m above the 2441sq m property on the corner of Marsden and Mark streets.</p><p>Cumberland granted approval last week to Marque Eight, of which Australian Securities and Investments Commission records confirm Ronney Oueik is the sole director. Oueik was mayor of Auburn City Council twice—for two years from September 2010 and then again for a year between 2014 and 2015.</p><p>In May 2016 the NSW government merged nine councils and created 19 new ones. A big part of Auburn Council, together with the Woodville ward of Parramatta City and most of the Holroyd City Council, became Cumberland City Council.</p><p>Marque Eight acquired five lots for a total $18 million in January 2015. It bought a sixth adjoining lot, adding another 405sq m, for $3.1 million about 17 months later. Three houses and a factory are on the parcel, which under the approved application will all be demolished.</p><p>The co-living apartments will be across the first three floors, including a manager’s room, common room and other break-out areas. Sixty-nine two-bedroom, 21 single-bedroom and 10 three-bedroom apartments will be on the fourth to the 11th floors.</p><p>Cumberland approved a previous request for a 10-storey, mixed-use building, including 149 apartments in November 2017, but construction never began.</p><div id="7q77vvs7q9xJOD45IpSkCi"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/6fEMzPm0sfAGHsJBT3rkVU/4040d175726a6c5d0586c410beda8890/Lidcombe_Co-Living_Mid.jpg" alt="The approval calls for a building 45-metres high—13 metres higher than was previously allowed." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/6fEMzPm0sfAGHsJBT3rkVU/4040d175726a6c5d0586c410beda8890/Lidcombe_Co-Living_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ A render of the approved mixed-use tower in Lidcombe.</span></div><div><br></div></div><p>The approval calls for a building 45m high—13m higher than previously allowed—which only became possible in November last year when the Cumberland local environmental plan came into force. The new LEP amended controls on height restrictions for the Lidcombe town centre.</p><p>“The proposed site is increasing density on existing urban land within proximity to an established centre, which is consistent with the vision of Sydney’s urban form on limiting urban sprawl and intensifying development on existing urban land stock focused around centres,” senior associate Joe McLoughlin of Urban Link Architects, who designed the building, said.</p><p>Lidcombe is about 20 minutes from Parramatta on the main western rail line, about 16km from Sydney’s CBD and near Sydney Olympic Park.</p><p>“The proximity to these surrounding suburbs supports the demand for an increasing variety of housing options within the area to support the growth of business and commercial assets,” McLoughlin said.</p>

Cumberland City Council has given the go ahead to a former mayor to build a 14-storey, $38.4 million mixed-use tower across six adjoining lots in Lidcombe, west of Sydney.

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<p>Australian and international project manager Eastview Australia has filed plans for a six-storey shoptop along a major throughfare on Sydney’s lower north shore.</p><p>Eastview is asking North Sydney Council to approve 21 apartments over five floors as well as ground floor retail, on a 760sq-m site at the corner of Military and Wycombe roads, Neutral Bay.</p><p>The key site, made up of four lots with a Military Road frontage of 25m, went to market in November last year. Colliers brokered a sale—to an unidentified group of Sydney developers—about three months later for just under $19 million.</p><p>That exceeded expectations for the site <a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/sydney-lower-north-shores-booming-downsizers" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/sydney-lower-north-shores-booming-downsizers">as developers jostled for elbow room in the sought-after neighbourhood</a> in a bid to attract cashed-up downsizers who are looking for much larger apartment-style living in the post-Covid era.</p><p>Plans filed last week show the $24.5-million development will include parking for 25 cars in three basement levels.&nbsp;</p><p>Nineteen two and three-bedroom apartments will be across four floors.&nbsp; Two three-bedroom penthouses are planned for the fifth floor. A residential lobby plus two retail spaces—one of 180sq m and the other 144sq m—will make up the ground level.</p><div id="3Cn39ioD63ozB8CMWhCpET"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/1HPQVNPa7LCLewNkoYzztw/5b8e8a232b2e3b2035bd599cb395276c/Neutral_Bay_Shoptop_Mid.jpg" alt="The ground floor will have frontages to both Military and Wycombe Roads." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/1HPQVNPa7LCLewNkoYzztw/5b8e8a232b2e3b2035bd599cb395276c/Neutral_Bay_Shoptop_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ The ground floor will have frontages to Military and Wycombe roads.</span></div><div><br></div></div><p>The Planning Studio, which filed documents on behalf of Eastview, has asked for a Clause 4.6 Variation Request over the proposed height of the building. The design by Sydney-based architects Embece rises to 21.84m in an area zoned for a maximum height of 16 metres.</p><p>In lodging the application, the town planners said although the proposal exceeded the maximum height control, an urban design analysis demonstrated it to be a compatible outcome.</p><p>“The area’s future character is likely to change with a number of properties in the locality identified as highly susceptible to change, many of which have potential to amalgamate with neighbouring lots for higher density development,” the documents said.</p><p>“Many of these sites are already subject to DAs, planning proposals or have made various public submissions seeking to develop buildings up to eight to fourteen storeys.”</p><p>Eastview Australia was established in Sydney in 1996 by Jim Simons and counts projects in south-east Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Canberra, as well as Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.</p>

Australian and international developer-builder Eastview Australia has filed plans for a six-storey shoptop along a major throughfare on Sydney’s lower north shore.

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<p>Two brothers have filed plans to build 196 apartments across four residential buildings—half of them as affordable housing—in Sydney’s southern suburbs.</p><p>It’s the second time Maroun and Mark Taouk, founders and directors of Sydney-based TQM Design and Construct, have lodged plans with Bayside Council to develop the 6295sq m site on Innesdale Road, in Wolli Creek on Botany Bay.</p><p>The pair filed separate applications last year for two, nine-storey, residential flat buildings with a total 76 apartments, but those plans were withdrawn in June this year.</p><p>Instead, TQM now has plans for a $42.8-million project of four, seven-storey buildings, plus parking for 215 cars in three basement levels, as well as rooftop communal space.</p><div id="2lZFWwH0h1Z0HIzWk0QfAx"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/177tCBOvO28PUWCID7814T/1a42a6b3bb6da286825d3d492261d151/Wolli_Creek_1_Mid.jpg" alt="An earlier development application for just two buildings was withdrawn, making way for plans for four. " data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/177tCBOvO28PUWCID7814T/1a42a6b3bb6da286825d3d492261d151/Wolli_Creek_1_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ An earlier development application for just two buildings was withdrawn, making way for plans for four.</span></div><div><br></div></div><p>Thirteen one and two-storey houses will be demolished to make way for the development, which is less than a kilometre from Sydney Airport and about 10km south of the capital.</p><p>In their place will be 36 one-bedroom, 124 two-bedroom and 36 three-bedroom apartments.&nbsp; Developers say half of the gross floor space, or about 8492sq m, will be given over to affordable housing.</p><p>TQM’s development director of&nbsp;Mark Taouk&nbsp;said the strategy was in line with their position on affordable housing.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>“We want to maximise our yield but at the same time try to assist with the housing affordability crisis,” he said, “and this will fall under our build-to-rent portfolio.”</p><p>The buildings are designed by Sydney-based Marchese Partners.</p><p>The developers have also lodged a Clause 4.6 Variation Request, seeking to exceed the maximum allowable building height in the R4 high density residential zone.&nbsp; The allowable height is 26.5m, but with lift overruns and the rooftop communal terrace, the development would reach about a metre higher.</p><p>In lodging the variation request, town planners Gyde Consulting said the proposed development was carefully massed and provided a four-storey street wall height, with an additional 3m setback above the fourth storey.</p><div id="3QtyAkzksDW91VGrXmsQLp"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/1VKsNJr3PDtd35RibzceHk/968776b5e13692e2295dce77eee26777/Wolli_Creek_2_Mid.jpg" alt="TQM’s plans follow approval last month by the Land and Environment Court for 71 apartments in the same street." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/1VKsNJr3PDtd35RibzceHk/968776b5e13692e2295dce77eee26777/Wolli_Creek_2_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ TQM’s plans follow approval last month by the Land and Environment Court for 71 apartments in the same street for a DKO Architecture-designed building.</span></div><div><br></div></div><p>“This assists in breaking up the buildings bulk and scale and ensures that the portions of the building which are located above the height of building control are centrally located to mitigate visual and amenity impacts,” Gyde said.</p><p>TQM—both a developer and a contact builder—has 15 projects in various stages, according to Taouk, including a nine-storey, 83-apartment tower on Princes Highway in Arncliffe.&nbsp;&nbsp;He said they expected to complete next month.&nbsp;</p><p>Meanwhile, last month the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales approved another residential development of eight storeys and 71 apartments in the same street.</p><p>The four lots totalling 2454sq m are about 50m from TQM’s planned project.</p><p>The approval came after minor amendments were made to the $23.8-million, DKO Architecture-designed building.&nbsp;</p>

Two brothers have filed plans to build 196 apartments across four residential buildings—half of them as affordable housing—in Sydney’s southern suburbs.

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<p>Melbourne-based architects DKO have taken on two partners to build a $30-million headquarters in Melbourne’s inner north.</p><p>DKO has forged a joint venture with Melbourne developer Chapter Group and Monark Property Partners to build the eight-storey commercial building in Down Street, Collingwood.</p><p>DKO will take at least four floors, just 450m from their current headquarters in Rokeby Road. The two-decades-old architecture firm paid $2.4 million for the 477-sq-m property in 2019, making them owner, architect and tenant.</p><p>“Once we’d found we had the planning permit, we then found a partner because we weren't too keen to do it ourselves,” DKO founder and principal Koos de Keijzer said.</p><p>A development application was granted six months ago, with construction due to begin midway through next year.</p><p>Internally, a podium of three floors rises above the ground floor offering flexible workspace, with landscaped planter boxes around the edge of the building. A rooftop solar garden will include common areas as well as food and drink facilities.</p><div id="1X8e3zjcJnYDUxNel3aM7a"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/3ZZM2qgU93TrJQnXaA0MlP/6f9ccb65bb0c307883e24a870512d829/DKO_New_HQ_Mid.jpg" alt="DKO will take at least four floors of the eight-storey building they will own and design." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/3ZZM2qgU93TrJQnXaA0MlP/6f9ccb65bb0c307883e24a870512d829/DKO_New_HQ_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ DKO will take at least four floors of the eight-storey building they will own and design.</span></div><div><br></div></div><p>De Keijzer said the design would include a ground-floor café, which DKO would consider owning and managing itself.</p><p>DKO Architect Jesse Linardi calls the Down Street building a “co-working incubator.”</p><p>“There’s a push for a kind of flexibility in terms of getting people to work how they want to work, and make the spaces almost feel like they're less commercial and more like the home,” Lindardi said.</p><p>“So designing it more intimately and more spatially domestic.”</p><p>Director and founder of Chapter Group Dean Lefkos said he had also noticed sharp demographic and logistical changes in the commercial market during the past 24 months.&nbsp;</p><p>“There has been a significant shift from large CBD office buildings to more boutique buildings in the city fringe,” Lefkos said.</p><p>“There are two major factors here firstly, financial. Rental rates in the city fringe are 25 per cent lower than the CBD commercial spaces and secondly, demographic. Millennials in the workforce prefer the vibrancy, access to transport and proximity to home that city fringe location offer versus traditional CBD tenancies.”</p><p>Down Street is the first joint venture between Chapter Group, DKO and Monark.</p><p>“We very much subscribe to the theory that well-designed, boutique commercial office buildings located in inner city fringe locations will continue to perform strongly in a post-Covid economy,” Monark co-founder Adam Slade-Jacobson said.</p><p>DKO employs 250 people in seven offices in three countries, including New Zealand and Vietnam. An eighth office is planned for Jakarta in Indonesia.</p>

Melbourne-based architects DKO have taken on two partners to build a new $30 million headquarters in Melbourne’s inner north.

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<p>Three Sydney developers will start work next week to gut a 1990s Elizabeth Bay apartment block, taking it from 32 apartments to just nine, with price tags in the tens of millions of dollars.</p><p>Peter Walsh and Stuart Brown of North East Corporation together with Philippe Remond of P-3 Living acquired the apartment building on the corner of Ithaca Road and Billyard Avenue in May last year, paying $61.5 million.</p><p>All 32 apartments had been amalgamated by the previous owner and came with a five-year-old development approval to add an additional level and two more apartments to the five-story building.</p><p>The developers scrapped those plans but retained permission for the additional floor, applying for the right to demolish internal walls, parts of the slab, facade elements and the existing pedestrian entry from Ithaca Road.</p><p>The SJB Architects design reconfigures the existing floor levels to create eight half-floor apartments, plus a full-floor penthouse. All apartments will be four bedrooms and four bathrooms and include formal living and dining rooms, separate TV room, wrap-around gardens and terraces with views to Sydney Harbour.</p><div id="71WMPAxeF6rczfN2G8NDeU"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/15ONDIY0botTMI21I9qmS2/955ab684d3b5f73ad510b2987be011c7/Elizabeth_Bay_Refurb_1_Mid.jpg" alt="The original building, from 1998, has 32 apartments.  The refurbishment will leave just nine." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/15ONDIY0botTMI21I9qmS2/955ab684d3b5f73ad510b2987be011c7/Elizabeth_Bay_Refurb_1_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ The original building, from 1998, has 32 apartments. The refurbishment will leave just nine.</span></div><div><br></div></div><p>Plans show the apartments will be 368-400sq m each. Most will have three parking bays.</p><p>The refurbishment, which is expected to cost about $16.3 million, was approved by Sydney City Council in June.</p><p>A marketing campaign is under way via 1st City Projects and Richardson and Wrench Elizabeth Bay with the apartments expected to fetch $16 million to $32.5 million.</p><p>Richardson and Wrench director Andrew Hoggett said they had been inundated with inquiries in the past week.</p><p>“There hasn’t been a significant development on that circle since 1996 when the 28 Billyard Avenue was done,” he said. “It is the first time for a long time that something of this size has been done.”</p><p>Hoggett said the inquiries were being driven by people moving from bigger homes.</p><p>“They are not downsizing as such because they’re going to have pretty significant space in those units. They’re not having to go to 150sq m, which a lot of the units are in this area.”</p><p>He expected the new development to break records for an apartment sold in Elizabeth Bay-Potts Point.&nbsp;</p><p>North East’s Peter Walsh said work would start next week with a completion date of early 2024.&nbsp;</p><p>A heritage impact statement presented to Sydney council by prestigious consultants GML Heritage said the 1537sq-m rectangular shaped site was within the Elizabeth Bay/Rushcutters Bay Heritage Conservation Area, although the building itself was identified as ‘neutral’.</p><div id="4o44ubDkjPSOrhSqLCYtOn"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/2XykrI7pcQn57j33cJ513e/ed8f6ac379e33439a59d234f11e39c63/Elizabeth_Bay_Refurb_2_Mid.jpg" alt="The SJB Architects design reconfigures the existing floor levels to create eight half-floor apartments, plus a full-floor penthouse.  " data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/2XykrI7pcQn57j33cJ513e/ed8f6ac379e33439a59d234f11e39c63/Elizabeth_Bay_Refurb_2_Mid.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ The SJB Architects design reconfigures the existing floor levels to create eight half-floor apartments, plus a full-floor penthouse.</span></div><div><br></div></div><p>“The proposed refurbishments provide extensive improvements to what is now an average example of a mid-1990s apartment block,” the impact study said, adding it would “sit more comfortably within the conservation area and amongst its neighbours”.</p><p>The refurbishment sits among some of Sydney’s more expensive real estate.</p><p>Three hundred metres away is Elizabeth Bay House, the colonial regency-style building, built from 1835 to 1839 and once described as “the finest house in the colony”.</p><p>Across the road in Billyard Avenue is Boomerang, a Spanish mission-style waterfront mansion and garden that featured in the Tom Cruise blockbuster, <em>Mission: Impossible II</em>.</p><p>As a condition of the plan’s approval the council insisted developers contribute almost $142,000 to the City of Sydney Affordable Housing Program, calculated as a percentage of the total additional floor area of the refurbishment.</p><p>North East’s Walsh and Brown have more than 20 years’ experience in acquisition, funding, design, development and sale of residential and income-producing property.&nbsp;</p><p>This year’s <a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/2022-national-architecture-awards-winners" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/2022-national-architecture-awards-winners">National Australian Institute of Architecture Awards</a> recognised three SJB Architects’ projects.</p>

Three Sydney developers will start work next week to gut a 1990’s Elizabeth Bay apartment block, taking it from 32 apartments to just nine, with price tags in the tens of millions of dollars.

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<p>The New South Wales government has rezoned a big chunk of Sydney’s inner south, paving the way for its $3-billion plan to redevelop a 1970s housing estate.</p><p>The rezoning of the initial phase of the 19ha Waterloo South estate will allow for construction of up to 847 social housing units, part of an eventual 3000 private and social homes.</p><p>An additional 227 homes will be built for affordable housing, and 10 per cent of dwellings will be dedicated First Nations housing.</p><p>The first phase of the redevelopment won gateway approval for rezoning last week. That followed a nearly two-year-long consultation period, including an eight-week public exhibition earlier this year.</p><p>Minister for planning and homes Anthony Roberts said the finalisation of the planning proposal was a positive step for the long-awaited redevelopment.</p><p>“The planning control changes mean we can begin the next stage of the project and support the delivery of new social and affordable housing, as well as private homes and new public space,” Roberts said in a statement.</p><div id="1mwlR1mEWqMS4zO00BdQ5X"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/xNfIfCz15LIf3KywrQIOb/18ea3fcbb9de3005c4ae188c5979c5e4/1.jpg" alt="The redevelopment proposal will be in three stages and built over the next 30 years." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/xNfIfCz15LIf3KywrQIOb/18ea3fcbb9de3005c4ae188c5979c5e4/1.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ The redevelopment proposal will be in three stages and built over the next 30 years.<br><br></span></div><p>“This is about breathing new life into an old social housing estate to support the needs of the growing number of people who call—or want to call—Waterloo home.”<br></p></div><p>The government’s plans have not been without controversy.</p><p>The redevelopment affects about 2000 tenants who will have to be relocated. The NSW Land and Housing Corporation, which owns the property, says it is working on a resident relocations strategy with the Department of Communities and Justice.</p><p>The corporation argues that at around 40 to 70 years old, the current facilities are nearing the end of their lifespan and are increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain.</p><p>It says residents will get at least six months’ notice to relocate, and that is unlikely to happen before early 2024.</p><p>The redevelopment proposal will be in three stages—Waterloo South, Waterloo Central and Waterloo North—and built over the next 30 years.</p><div id="6bMqmlTH9YTVux0GAUodSn"><picture><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/1nwI3e6jtwaefW6W1LoO2I/5c168a75d96681e86c4e78097b83055e/2.jpg" alt="Architects will be asked to submit building designs into a competition and shortlist of developers and community housing providers be finalised in weeks." data-mce-src="//images.ctfassets.net/8pr762qjocl3/1nwI3e6jtwaefW6W1LoO2I/5c168a75d96681e86c4e78097b83055e/2.jpg"></picture><div><span style="opacity: 0.8;" data-mce-style="opacity: 0.8;">▲ Architects will be asked to submit building designs into a competition and shortlist of developers and community housing providers be finalised in weeks.<br><br></span></div><p>Waterloo South covers about 65 per cent of the project and will include four towers of between 27 and 33 storeys, plus some medium-rise of six to 13 storeys and some low-rise between two and five storeys.<br></p></div><p>Plans for the first stage <a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/social-housing-waterloo-south" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/social-housing-waterloo-south">were overhauled in February of last year </a>to create fewer high rise towers, and more social and affordable housing.</p><p>Architects will be asked to submit building designs into a competition.</p><p>The plan includes changes to streets, walkways and cycleways to improve traffic flow, as well as an additional 2.5ha of public open space.</p><p>The NSW government’s announcement of the Waterloo redevelopment precinct in 2015 included the delivery of a new Waterloo metro station—due to open in 2024—and includes a big mixed-use development above the station.</p><p>ASX-listed property group Mirvac and construction group John Holland have been <a href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/mirvac-john-holland-wateroo-sydney-approval" data-mce-href="https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/mirvac-john-holland-wateroo-sydney-approval">given the green light to begin building</a> the $900-million new homes, shops and integrated community facilities.</p><p>The corporation opened an expressions-of-interest campaign looking for a developer and community housing providers to deliver the Waterloo South phase, which ended in August. An evaluation process is now under way.</p><p>Corporation chief executive Simon Newport said he expected a shortlist to be finalised in coming weeks.</p><p>“We’re excited to keep this project moving—a renewal partner will deliver new buildings and infrastructure and collaborate with government to support residents through change, to create a vibrant and mixed inner-city community,” Newport said.</p>

The New South Wales government has rezoned a big chunk of Sydney’s inner south, paving the way for its $3 billion plan to redevelop a 1970s housing estate.