Month: July 2023

A prominent Newcastle developer says he is reviewing all of his projects in light of new planning rules allowing greater height and density in exchange for affordable housing.

the NSW government on June 15 released a plan to address the housing supply shortage, by offering incentives for developers to include affordable housing in their projects.

Housing developments valued at more than $75 million which allocate a minimum of 15 percent gross floor area to affordable housing can have 30 percent more floor space per ratio and 30 percent more height than local environment plans.

The developments will also gain access to the State Significant Development planning approval pathway, which often results in faster planning decisions.

Affordable housing is open to people on a wider range of incomes than social housing and is for people whose income isn’t high enough to pay rent where they live or work.

Projects including the store appartments, Dairy Farmers Corner and the West Village development on the former spotlight site are valued at more than $75 million.

Dairy Farmers is being developed by Third.i Group. Director Luke Berry said Third.i would all of their projects to see if they are eligible for the proposal.

“This will include our current and future pipeline of apartment developments as well as our large scale house and land communities,” Mr Berry said.

We want to give everyone an opportunity to live in accessible locations full of amenity so watch this space if we get government support on our projects there will be some really big announcements coming soon from our world.”

Mr Berry said the change was needed to mitigate the housing crisis and would make affordable housing “more accessible to those people in need of it”.

“If we don’t do something drastic today and maximise the sites that can support increases in density without over developing them, its the future generations that will suffer because of it,” he said.

Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the announcement was “a great step”towards ensuring more affordable housing was included in new developments.

“City of Newcastle is in a position as the only metropolitan council to retain planning powers in the state,” she said.

“It’s my view that while Newcastle has a great track record of high-quality and sensible development from a planning perspective, we’ve needed leadership from the NSW government to ensure adequate social and affordable housing is contained within new large-scale developments, particularly in the emerging CBD in Newcastle West.

“The premiers announcement is a great step in that direction.

“i’ve written to the premier to advise that City of Newcastle is willing to work closely with the NSW government to explore opportunities to fast-track and streamline construction of more social and affordable housing throughout Newcastle, and i look forward to continuing to work with the government to continue to deliver more housing for Novocastrians in need.”

The changes are set to come into effect later in 2023.

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One of the city’s older and most prominent office buildings is being repurposed to include a state of the art office precinct inspired by Google workspaces.

The five-level building on the corner of stokes and Sturt St, is also set to house state government offices with a heads of agreement signed to negotiate terms.

But initial plans to convert at least part of the building into specialist disability accommodation have been ditched after it was found the potential change of use would have triggered fire compliance requirements which would have made the redevelopment unviable.

The 40-year-old building with more than 5700sq m of net lettable area was previously the home of the region’s electricity authority and more recently infrastructure group AECOM.

But it has been mostly vacant in recent years and in need of a makeover.

Acquired by Sydney developer Thirdi, with the backing of Singaporean funds, in 2019, they have completed a $10m transformation, rebranding the property as Precinct 21.

Popular food and beverage cafe The Beet Bar took s prominent ground floor tenancy in 2021 and women’s fashion boutique Hazel mai also recently moved in.

Thirdi founder Luke Berry said they were well advanced in negotiation with a statutory state government body to lease 1500sq m on the ground floor and first level.

While plans for apartments as specialist disability accomodation proved unfeasible, Mr Berry said he was thrilled to have refurbished the building, including level 4 as a co-working space.

He said the project was inspired by Google workspaces with each floor boasting a modern, industrial style fit-out with an abundance of natural light and views across the city.

On Level 4, suites of between 100sq m and 479sq m are available, although the group says it has flexible floorplan options which can be customised to suit a business’s needs.

The building comes with 24/7 access, on-site basement parking, dual lifts and flat floor plans.

inquiries on the office space can be made to E-Property Consulting NQ.

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Sydney developer Thirdi has been given the green light for its joint venture Potts Point residential project by the Land and Environment Court.

The MUSE Potts Point development on Brougham Street will deliver 13 boutique residential one, two and three-bedroom apartments under plans submitted last year.

But the process proved to be more challenging than first imagined after the City of Sydney Council and planning committees failed to make a determination.

In March, Thirdi and development partners Toohey Miller filed an appeal in the Land and Environment Court.

While they have now been successful, Thirdi co-founder and director Luke Berry was candid about the challenges the team faced.

“From our point of view it was about respecting and integrating the heritage component of Potts Point within the development,” he told The Urban Developer.

“From the council’s point of view, due to a small but vocal community group against development in the area, it was obvious they were going to be under pressure to let our DA run a normal process of review and approval, even with our proposal being a compliant one in terms of height and scale. 

“At times you could tell the council felt torn between providing direction based on good design and how they would manage the local objections which would have severely impacted the best outcome for the site.”

As a result of the consultation and court process, the developers made revisions including a reduction in the size of the apartment block which would improve view sharing, particularly for The Butler restaurant on Victoria Street, which faced losing its city view as a result of the development. 

“While we were always going to ensure fair and reasonable view sharing for neighbouring properties, it was difficult to cut through the mis-information of the community groups just wanting to stop the development when they knew this was never going to happen,” Berry said. 

“All the design revisions were to ensure that the local community was considered, the heritage of the location was respected all without impacting the design intent of the development.

“We hope the community will see how we addressed their concerns in the final designs.”

Thirdi experienced a difficult and frustrating process with the Land and Environment Court.

“Thirdi always believes that the best and most productive process would be to try and work with the council and community to achieve a positive outcome for the development,” Berry said. 

“We are just grateful that there is a process that development like this one can follow to secure approval.

“The commissioner did an extraordinary job at balancing everyone’s opinions and concerns, and the outcome is a great result for all involved.”

Areas such as Brougham Street at Potts Point have aging and non-compliant buildings, said Berry, and these issues will have to be played out more often. 

“The reality is that areas like Potts Point…need to have a pathway through planning to ensure new housing is delivered in this area.” 

Despite the challenges, Berry is looking forward to the future of the development.

“We are excited to reveal these views to future residents when we launch MUSE in late 2023…can’t wait to start construction later this year,” Berry said.

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