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Jemalong St Leonards has lodged a scoping report with the NSW Department of Planning and Environment in relation to a concept State significant development application for a mixed-use build-to-rent project at 46 – 52 Nicholson Street and 57 – 67 Christie Street in St Leonards.
Consent is sought for the entire development in concept form, including for land uses, gross floor areas, building envelope and vehicular access arrangements.
Being a concept proposal, it is ineligible for build-to-rent housing industry-specific requirements from the Planning Secretary.
Specifically, the proposal will seek consent for:
· a building envelope with a maximum height of 29 storeys, with an overall gross floor area of circa 34,500sqm,
· a mixed of build-to-rent, commercial office and retail land uses,
· vehicular access from Christie Street and semi vehicular (loading) access from Nicholson Street.
The proposal’s non-BTR components (retail and commercial office) are considered sufficiently related to the BTR component, given its location within the podium of the building, the logical synergies with BTR from a services, amenity and viability perspective, and their co-location in the high density commercial precinct of St Leonards.
Context
Located on about 2300sqm within the Lane Cove LGA on the southern side of St Leonards Centre, the site is within walking distance to St Leonards Station and the under-construction Crows Nest Metro Station.
St Leonards is undergoing a transition from smaller commercial buildings to multi-storey, mixed-use and commercial development. Much of the land on the north and south side of Pacific Highway has already been developed with larger mixed-use buildings. Several underdeveloped properties are also subject to development consent.
The subject site contains six commercial buildings ranging in height from two-to-four storeys, which are reaching the end of their economic lifespan.
This concept application follows a planning proposal submitted for the site in 2020, which saw a new planning framework adopted in line with the density envisioned under the St Leonards and Crows Nest 2036 Plan:
· increase the maximum floor space ratio from 4.5:1 to 15:1 through the introduction of a site-specific clause (i.e. clause 6.10 of the Lane Cove LEP), and
· increase the maximum building height from 25 metres to RL 174.95 metres.
Following gazettal of the 2036 Plan, the councils of North Sydney, Lane Cove and Willoughby have and are anticipated to continue to progress planning proposals through amendments to their LEPs.
The 2036 Plan specifically identifies build-to-rent as an emerging land use within St Leonards, given its accessible location and improvements to active and public transport links with the introduction of the Crows Nest Metro Station.
Developers have been building apartments for rent for decades but the first major institutional property player to deliver a BTR project in Australia was US-based Sentinel Real Estate Corporation (93-apartment project in Perth).
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