Hunter Street Metro: Twin tower development over new Sydney CBD station
An artist’s impression of the new Hunter Street Metro Station.
Plans have at last been unveiled for the new Hunter Street Metro Station in the Sydney CBD, with two towers just shy of 270m to be built over the new transportation hub.
The towers, dubbed Hunter Street East and West, will be slightly different to each other, with variations in available space and tenancy. The east tower will front Bligh, Hunter and O’Connell streets while the west tower will corner George and Hunter streets.
Both buildings will result in the demolition of a series of existing properties that the NSW government has been acquiring. In the largest such move, 9 Hunter St, was acquired for $344m from Hong Kong’s Value Partners Group and Ashe Morgan as part of the Hunter Street station development.
The heights and floor space of buildings will vary, with the east tower comprising a height of between 238.9m and 269.1m and a maximum gross floor area of 84,287sq m, while the western tower will be limited to 51 storeys with a GFA of 70,000sq m.
The towers will “maintain the competitiveness and global status of the Sydney CBD by significantly enhancing the employment-generating capacity of the site”, according to planning documents.
The new Sydney Paramatta metro line doubles the city’s current train capacity between the two CBDs, reducing travel time to 20 minutes, slightly longer than it takes to get from Town Hall station to Marrickville on the regular train.
Heavyweight developers are vying for the right to redevelop the planned new precinct above Sydney Metro’s planned Hunter Street station.
The towers would interest office heavyweights Brookfield, Dexus, Lendlease, Charter Hall, Mirvac and Investa, as well as offshore investors. Hoteliers, retailers and hospitality operators are also chasing positions on the site, whose scale and position make it akin to the $3bn Macquarie Group over-station development at Martin Place.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet had earlier introduced the development of the metro as a life-changing opportunity for the city, providing access to both CBDs at a speed far quicker than a car could travel.
“Sydney Metro stations will change the way people live and commute, bringing people home faster and bringing prosperity to local businesses,” he said.
“There’s an opportunity in Hunter St to integrate transport with a new city precinct, weaving it into the fabric of the city. It’s part of our long-term vision to revitalise the CBD and bring Sydney roaring back to life after the challenges of the pandemic.”
The Perrottet government says it will use a first-of-its-kind model, which it says will revitalise the entire precinct, making it one of the country’s most valuable development jobs.
