Sydney Fish Market slated for skyscraper developments
The site of Sydney Fish Market may become home to thousands of apartments and office buildings soaring up to 45 storeys under plans released by the NSW government as it seeks to kickstart the economy in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
The fish market has been hit by the tourist downturn prompted by the crisis and is already slated to move to a new site at the head of Blackwattle Bay, clearing the way for a major redevelopment.
The new precinct would include skyscrapers on par with city towers under scenarios proposed by state development body Infrastructure NSW, that has also pledged to take into account environmental factors.
The government has developed three scenarios after drawn-out consultations since 2014 as it looks to revitalise the area that has drawn comparisons to Sydney’s Barangaroo district.
The Berejiklian government is looking to get development moving in the area after a rapid review of planning on the Pyrmont peninsula. The property industry was rocked by the rejection of a 60-storey luxury hotel and apartment tower at The Star in Pyrmont last year. But the government has now outlaid plans for the contentious fish market site in the hope of sparking major construction works and defraying the cost of the $750m scheme to shift the market.
Infrastructure NSW has put forward three ideas for consultation, with the most commercial ideas likely to be backed after the government knocked back private sector proposals to redevelop the nearby White Bay precinct after putting it on the block in 2016.
The body said Blackwattle Bay could accommodate up to 250,000sqm of space which would support 1000 to 1700 units and 4000 to 7000 jobs. The buildings would be matched by a precinct of new restaurants, cafes and cultural facilities. Under a residential-focused scheme, which would likely offer the highest value given the harbourfront location, there would be a group of slender buildings ranging in height from 18 to 44 storeys over four to six-storey podiums.
A mixed plan would see residential buildings and larger commercial office buildings ranging in height from 13 to 45 storeys over podiums of up to seven storeys.
An alternative office focused precinct would seek to house innovation-based companies and may include a hotel. There would be masonry warehouse-style, 10-storey office buildings, with apartment towers of up to 45 storeys rising above them.
All the proposals rely on the dormant luxury apartment market firing and office developers being able to win tenants.
The multibillion-dollar precinct is likely to draw local and international property companies with the area to be built out in the mid-2020s.
The site has drawn controversy for many years and may prove a tough place to launch a new development. A $3 billion scheme by a Chinese company Dahau that was made in 2013 failed and a rival plan by Brookfield Multiplex also did not go ahead.
By 2016, heavyweight property developers were again eyeing the prime Sydney harbourfront after the Baird government reached a deal with fishmongers to move the Sydney Fish Market from its inner-city Pyrmont site.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
