SURRY HILLS SCHEME

Property developer Toga has announced it will be launching a design competition later this year to enable the redevelopment of the Surry Hills Shopping Village.

After acquiring the 12,322 square metre site in 2015, Toga is planning the development of residential apartments and a retail centre. James Street will be extended between Marriott and Baptist Streets to create a double-storey retail precinct with shops and restaurants opening onto an alfresco laneway destination. A second through-site link will connect the site east to west, and reveal a new 500 square metre inner-city park. Crown Street’s “golden retail strip” will also extend south with the activation of the site’s Baptist Street frontage.

Toga said design submissions that stand out will be those that aim to protect and revive the original Bank’s building frontage which features Federation-style brickwork, built in 1912.

Toga Development & Construction CEO Fabrizio Perilli said architectural firms will be asked to design a mixed-use development with more than 170 apartments and 9000 square metres of commercial and retail space.

Located at the landmark Cleveland and Baptist Street corner, the development will retain a Coles supermarket as its anchor tenant to support the variety of specialty retailers within the shopping hub.

“This project presents the unique opportunity to design a vibrant mixed-use precinct and transform a piece of local history into a welcoming neighbourhood with an intimate connection to popular Crown Street and the broader inner-city area,” Perilli said.

“Surry Hills Shopping Village will be rejuvenated into a lively destination attracting local residents and visitors to its thriving retail scene and pedestrian-friendly configuration,” Perilli said.

The new development will sympathetically cascade from seven to four storeys with terrace-style housing at ground-level to take design cues from the neighbouring properties.

Above street-level, apartments will ‘pull away’ from the street with several architectural setbacks planned to preserve the existing streetscape and maintain efficient solar access to the neighbourhood.

“A mix of apartment and townhouse-style housing within the new development will provide important new housing options for a range of people, including families, looking to be closer to amenities and transport,” Perilli said.

The design excellence competition will be run in accordance with the City of Sydney’s Competitive Design Policy and will be judged by a panel of property industry experts later this year. The City of Sydney unanimously endorsed Toga’s Shopping Village planning proposal last month.

Construction is anticipated to commence in 2018.