North Sydney: Bold vision revealed for CBD of the future

North Sydney looks set to become the architectural heart of the city as developers push the boundaries in a bid to lure top companies back into the CBD post-COVID.

The city’s skyline is set to take on a new shape under plans for the next high rise development for North Sydney.

Developer group Holdmark has lodged a $113.8 million proposal to build a uniquely shaped office tower at 20 Berry St aimed at breaking the “street wall” of square buildings in the city centre.

The proposal is the latest distinctive tower earmarked for North Sydney. Also recently proposed are a 26 storey building with a glass-encased sky garden on Walker St and a 27 storey building resembling London’s ‘Cheese Grater’ tower on the current site of the MLC building.

A concept plan of the Berry St development.

The plan has been lodged to North Sydney Council.

The plan for Berry St would involve bulldozing the existing SMEC building to make way for the 22 storey redevelopment standing 102m tall – 36 per cent taller than the current height limit.

Holdmark said the building would include an outdoor plaza at the corner of Berry St and Angelo St, 57 carparks, and would create up to 1335 office jobs once completed.

Despite the recent rise in Sydneysiders working from home in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, plans stated demand for new office spaces was expected to increase.

“Post-COVID, office assets will be required to ‘work harder’ in order to be competitive (and) secondary grade assets like the current site which is nearly 50 years old will be particularly vulnerable,” the plans stated.

Other proposals in North Sydney include the MLC building and a skygarden plan at Walker St.

“Services or amenity that were once ‘nice to haves’ have over time become ‘standard’, thereby shifting employee expectations to require even greater levels of quality and amenity.”

Debate surrounding the rising number of office towers planned in North Sydney featured at a meeting held by the Property Council of Australia last week to discuss the “multibillion-dollar pipeline” of projects in the town centre attended by some of Sydney’s biggest developers including Lendlease, Urbis and Billbergia

Graeme Collins, the NSW development director of Lendlease which is behind the 42 storey Victoria Cross Metro Station development, said there had been a “a flight” to new office buildings accelerated by COVID-19 with tenants looking for modern workplaces that “attract and retain talent in a competitive market.”

North Sydney Mayor Jilly Gibson told the meeting she wanted to see the North Sydney CBD become “the economic powerhouse of the north shore and take its place as a global city.”

But North Sydney councillor Zoe Baker has questioned marked demand for the amount of office towers currently planned in the town centre.

She said while the completion of the Metro would make the town centre more desirable, a scenario where office towers are struggling to find tenants could result in developers lobbying for change zoning laws to allow the conversion of office space into units.

“Post-COVID, a lot of offices are having people work from home two or three days a week – I think there’ll still be a place for central business districts, but I don’t think there’ll be the same level of demand as previously predicted,” she said.

“There’s always been an idea if you build commercial space it equals jobs but we’re moved into a much more flexible way of working in a digital age.”

The Property Council meeting heard the future look of North Sydney would give priority to pedestrians over cars with upgrades including plans to turn Miller St into a pedestrian zone, new parks and laneways that would encourage an 18-hour night-time economy in the town centre.

Development plans for the Berry St tower have been lodged to North Sydney Council and are currently under assessment.