One Sydney Park: Developer’s ties to Cayman Islands revealed
Residents are calling for a $700m block to be refused over fears it will encroach on valuable green space. It comes as the developers have been linked to a Cayman Island firm.
Inner West
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Inner west locals are calling for a huge $700m project at Sydney Park to be scrapped and the land returned to the community as the developer’s links to an offshore tax haven can be revealed.
Residents in Erskineville and St Peters have spent the last three years fighting the project to bring 350 apartments to the much-loved park after losing 1.4 hectares of parkland to WestConnex.
The City of Sydney has never supported the proposal – dubbed ‘One Sydney Park’ – which has now seen the case being appealed in the Land and Environment Court after a planning panel refused it.
Community group Friends of Erskineville has been spearheading a movement to see the project scrapped because, members said, a state government promise in the late 1980s for the land to be incorporated into the park was never realised.
Hailiang Property Group (HPG) was able to lodge ambitious plans for an eight-building project overlooking Sydney Park with some of the best views in the Harbour City.
HPG is fully-owned by another company called Hailiang International Holdings which is registered in the offshore tax haven of the Cayman Islands, according to financial documents and the Hong Kong stock exchange records, where it operates.
Attempts to reach the company for comment were unsuccessful.
Maxida International Alexandria owns the land after it bought the former industrial site for $147 million in 2017.
Documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission reveal Maxida is fully owned by Maxida Intl Company Ltd which has shares in a company based in the Cayman Islands.
Those details came to light in the 2017 Panama Papers leak.
The park sits on the border of the Inner West and City of Sydney areas who, between them, have the third and sixth worst open space to resident ratio in all of NSW.
“1.4 hectares was sliced off for WestConnex,” Friends of Erskineville’s Andrew Chuter said.
“The community has already lost a lot of space and this would be one way of clawing it back.”
According to figures provided to the Inner West Courier, residents in the City have just 17.7 metres of open space each.
“We’d like to see some kind of land swap, look across the road at that whole south Sydney business area; the woolsheds, The Grounds on Huntley St, that could be a really nice residential precinct,” Mr Chuter said.
“They could swap that land and retain full integrity of Sydney Park.”
If it is built, the concept images show some of the most luxurious apartments you could find in Sydney, idyllic views and world-class amenities that will occupy the former tip site.
Attempts to reach Maxida were also unsuccessful.
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