Waterloo: $490m life sciences precinct on Botany Rd recommended for approval by City of Sydney

Plans for the country’s first commercial life sciences campus south of the Sydney CBD, which will cost nearly $500m, are one step closer. Here’s the latest.

100 Botany Rd, Waterloo is set to house Australia’s first commercialised life sciences precinct

Plans for the country's first commercial life sciences campuses, which will cost nearly $500m, are one step closer south of Sydney.

The $490m development has been recommended for approval by the Central Planning Committee with a decision to be made at the committee’s meeting on Thursday.

The campus will sit on 26,000sq m and is designed to accommodate hi-tech, cutting-edge laboratories, collaborative workspaces and infrastructure for the life sciences industry.

The aim behind the mega project is to support the expansion of Australia’s medical and health sciences industries and create a space where research and development can thrive and lead to successful commercialisation.

Located at 100 Botany Rd, Waterloo, the development will create 1200 new construction jobs and 1700 long-term positions once operational, with additional economic activity anticipated in the surrounding areas.

However not everyone is thrilled with locals raising concerns of construction impacts, amenity impacts, design, scale and biohazard concerns.

Artist impression of the campus.

The price tag is $490m.

Local resident Maree Harland said the building would have a “detrimental impact” to his wellbeing.

“The construction phase which encompasses deep excavation will give rise to intolerable and unacceptable noise, vibration, dust, congestion and a host of other impacts,” he said in a submission to the council.

The project will create will create 1200 new construction jobs and 1700 long-term positions.

The $490m development will sit on 26,000sq m and is designed to accommodate hi-tech laboratories and collaborative workspaces.

“The buildings are going to create a loss of privacy together with overshadowing for the existing terraced homes.

“I ask the council to consider these implications when assessing the application and consider the impacts on the long-term residents and their right to the quiet enjoyment of their property.”

According to Kurraba Group – the life sciences and biomedical property specialists heading up the project – the development will “empower the next generation of researchers”.

“Embedded within a dynamic inner-city location, with connections to the broader Sydney Life Sciences network, this precinct aims to inspire new centres of knowledge, breakthroughs and tenant growth,” Kurraba Group said in a media statement.

“This project nurtures collaboration across the broader Sydney life sciences network.”