Sydney’s Sir Stamford Hotel set for apartment transformation
City apartment markets might be slowing but Singapore tycoon CK Ow clearly has faith in the sector, re-lodging plans to develop opulent apartments on the site of his dowager hotel in Sydney.
CK Ow has lodged plans worth more than $135 million to redevelop his longstanding Sir Stamford Hotel at 93-95 Macquarie St, 200m southeast of Circular Quay.
Under the plans the existing 10-level 105-room Sir Stamford Hotel would be converted into a luxury apartment block with part of the hotel’s sandstone facades retained.
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Ow’s original plans were stymied by Malaysian conglomerate Mulpha, owner of the nearby InterContinental Sydney and adjoining Transport House, with the two real estate heavyweights facing off against each other in a courtroom stoush two years ago.
Under the original Stamford plans for the apartment tower, Mulpha claimed the views from its wholly owned InterContinental Hotel would have suffered.
That scheme failed to win support, putting Stamford Land Corporation behind other groups wishing to redevelop older buildings around Sydney’s Circular Quay, which include Wanda’s plans for the former Goldfields house site.
Under the new plans Stamford is seeking approval for 76 residential apartments within the tower, with a variety of layouts including 10 one-bedders, 47 two-bedders and 19 three-bedders.
A further set of apartments including a four-bedroom unit would be developed within the existing heritage building across the site on the northern end of the Royal Botanic Garden.
According to Stamford’s new plans, the tower elements will respond to the precise view corridors available from the site and militate against directly overlooking the Quay Apartments to the north and the Hotel InterContinental to the southwest as well as the Astor apartments further to the south.
“The Hotel InterContinental lies approximately 38m to the southwest. This stage one development application has considered privacy to apartments in this area of the building,” Stamford says.
– with Ben Wilmot
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
