UTS makes play for Sydney CBD grad school
Development giant Frasers Property Australia and Sekisui House Australia are close to striking a major deal at their landmark Central Park project on the southern edge of Sydney’s central business district to house the University of Technology Sydney’s graduate health school.
The pair launched the commercial leasing for the tower, branded One Hundred Broadway, located in the $2 billion Central Park precinct, in late 2016. It is due for completion by mid to late this year, and is billed as the first A-grade office development on Broadway for many years.
One Hundred Broadway is effectively the commercial space element of DUO, which was designed by world renowned architects Foster + Partners, and sits on the corner of Abercrombie Street and Broadway in Chippendale.
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But a campaign by real estate agency CBRE has drawn the university to the complex, which is under construction and also includes a plan to refurbish well known watering hole the Australian Hotel.
The university has filed a planning application to change the planned use of the building from an office tower to allow levels five through 10 to be put to educational use. The plans include fit-out and signage for the UTS graduate school of health. The institution will take up 6417sqm in the tower’s western wing, facing Abercrombie Street, according to the documentation.
The school would include postgraduate teaching for up to 300 students as well as research facilities and a medical centre with services including a pharmacy, clinical psychology, orthoptics, physiotherapy and genetic counselling. The plans reveal that UTS will consult with Frasers about engaging with the building’s other users, owners and occupiers.
UTS is dramatically overhauling its existing campus on the other side of Broadway.
The last phase of the campus master plan has commenced, with a completion date set for next year.
The UTS Central project that is transforming the entrance to the university is well under way and the further refurbishment of three buildings is planned.
The dramatic reshaping of the campus has created some redundant sites that have drawn attention from the private sector, and were last year mooted as a potential home for tech giant Google, but a deal was not finalised.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
