Daggy Manly Vale and Balgowlah industrial area becoming home to posh retailers

The scruffy industrial precinct on the Manly Vale/Balgowlah border is set to become a bit more posh as another high-end retailer wants to move in

An artist's impression of a proposed King Living upmarket furniture showroom planned for 200-204 Condamine Street, Balgowlah. Picture: Centric Architects

Details of a proposed $9 million showroom for one of Australia’s poshest furniture retailers wanting to open its doors at one of the northern beaches daggiest locations, have been revealed.

King Living, popular for designing, making and selling high-end modular living room furniture, luxury sofas and dining suites, is keen to locate a swish showroom on an old Barbeques Galore site in the industrial precinct on the Balgowlah/Manly Vale border.

If it gets the go ahead from Northern Beaches Council to knock down three existing empty buildings — from 200-204 Condamine St — King Living will be just metres from another luxury furniture and homewares outlet, Coco Republic.

The former Barbeques Galore outlet at 204 Condamine St, Balgowlah, which opened in 2015, is set to be replaced by a high-end furniture showroom. Picture: Facebook (Barbeques Galore Australia)

And it will be a short walk around the corner from another fancy furniture place, Smith Made, in Roseberry St. A Freedom furniture and homewares store is already operating on the opposite side of Condamine St to the proposed King Living site.

A development application is before the council to build the two-storey “King” showroom, with parking, on Condamine St — between Hayes St, Balgowlah and Kenneth Rd, Manly Vale.

An artist's impression of a proposed King Living upmarket furniture showroom planned for 200-204 Condamine Street, Balgowlah. Picture: Centric Architects

As well as the old Barbeques Galore shop, King Living would bulldoze a former outdoor furniture retailer and an indoor plant outlet.

Images of what the slick looking showroom, to open seven days a week, would look like have been added to the DA. King Living was named in the top 12 furniture shops by magazine Better Homes and Gardens.

The empty Barbeques Galore on Condamine St, Balgowlah on Monday. Picture: Jim O'Rourke

The bid to build the ritzy showroom comes as the council recently completed its plan to “green” scruffy and noisy Condamine St through Manly Vale and Balgowlah by planting dozens of trees and plants that would eventually create a shady canopy between Campbell Pde and Hayes St.

An artist's impression of a proposed King Living upmarket furniture showroom planned for 200-204 Condamine Street, Balgowlah. Picture: Centric Architects

In mid-2022 the council also formed a Special Works and Transformation Team (SWAT) team to descend on Manly Vale to “carry out works such as repair and repaint street furniture, undertake graffiti removal on council assets, repair or replace damaged bins, fix paving trip hazards, undertake vegetation management and carry out high-pressure pavement washing along Roseberry Street to tidy up the general area”.

The former Barbeques Galore outlet at 204 Condamine St, Balgowlah. Picture: Facebook (Barbeques Galore Australia)

A special Manly Vale Town Centre Working Group, made up of local community and

business representatives alongside council staff has been set-up and “will continue to investigate further opportunities and implement ideas for improvement to the area”.

The upmarket Coco Republic furniture and homewares showroom at the corner of Condamine St and Hayes St, Balgowlah. Picture; Supplied

King Living, which also has outlets at Annandale, Bondi Junction, Castle Hill, Chatswood, Moore Park, Newcastle and Northmead, … has been contacted for comment.