‘Cinderella’ suburb on course to get fairytale finish
LEMONGROVE has flown under the radar but the little suburb is poised to see big changes in 2017.
Penrith
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IN 1926 Penrith Alderman, James Norman Peek described Lemongrove as “the Cinderella of the whole municipality”.
Which led Stephanie Oatley, the chief executive of the Lemongrove-based Platform Youth Services, to joke: “Where’s our Prince Charming?”
She may have got her wish because Penrith’s underdog is finally getting a magical new lease of life, thanks to a glut of new developments.
“I had an opportunity to go to Coogee or Penrith — my gut said Penrith,” said Steve Ajami, owner of the The Shack Organic Whole Foods Market and Cafe, who is looking to put Lemongrove on the culinary map.
He is opening his fourth store this Saturday in the old Lemongrove milk bar.
RSL LifeCare has already spent $15 million to revitalise the tired former Governor Phillip Hospital at 64 Glebe Place, and now plans to expand its services into the next-door vacant lot.
Platform Youth Services in Lemongrove St plans to extend, and Glenbrook’s Health Tribe Sydney has travelled from the Blue Mountains to build a medical centre in Lemongrove’s tired shopping strip.
The centre would have five treatment rooms providing services from osteopaths, physiotherapists, counsellors, chiropractors and massage therapists.
“It’s pushing property values up, absolutely,” Property Central Penrith director Paul Wallace said of the planned developments.
Ms Oatley said with the Thorton Estate next-door she was confident Lemongrove would be “reinvigorated”, adding what the area really needed was “more food shops”.
Mr Wallace said: “Local buyers have always been a little bit sceptical to invest in the area but ... prices in Thornton have blown everyone away and buyers have a lot more confidence.
“Property prices (averaging $400,000 for units and $550,000 for houses) are starting to creep up and I think will continue to creep up.”
Platform Youth Services has submitted a development application to Penrith Council for a first-floor addition to its double-storey Victorian villa headquarters in Lemongrove.
“We want to build three offices, to provide centralised management,” Ms Oatley said.
RSL LifeCare’s Central Sydney general manager Luke Young said with reference to the Glebe Pl/King St corner block where asbestos-riddled cottages once stood: “On the land that’s been levelled we’re building 44 independent living homes.
“Plans are being finalised for a submission to (Penrith) council. It will be beautiful.”
Since last year The Contemporary Veterans Homelessness and Assistance Program, affectionately known as Homes for Heroes, has been running out of the old dementia wing of the former high-care nursing facility Governor Phillip Hospital, now known as Governor Phillip Manor.
“We’re currently based in Glenbrook — we’ve been here five years — but our plan was always to have a location in Penrith,” Health Tribe Sydney’s practise manager Monique Piwonka said.
“I would say 40 per cent of our customers are from Penrith; we currently look after lots of runners,” she said. “(If given the go-ahead by Penrith Council), we should be in by May.”
Ms Piwonka and Ms Oatley agreed parking posed a challenge in the area.
Currently there is unrestricted parking in streets near Lemongrove Rd, where many workers park all day, and there are timed parking restrictions across a portion of Thornton’s road network.
The area is characterised by cottages dating from the Late Victorian to the inter-war period, as well as two- and three-storey residential buildings built after the 1970s.
“Lemongrove was named by John and Sarah MacHenry when they purchased their property in the 1820s; they called their home Lemongrove,” Penrith historian Lorraine Stacker said.
She said the Lemongrove Estate precinct — covering Lemongrove Rd to Blaxland Ave and The Crescent to Thurston St — was then subdivided in 1885 attracting merchants, professional men and working class men, in particular railway employees.
The cottages near Lemongrove Bridge are believed to have been built for railway workers in the years following the opening of the railway line in 1863.
WHAT’S NEW:
■ Governor Phillip Manor looks to build 44 independent living homes
■ Platform Youth Services seeks to extend
■ The Shack Organic Whole Foods Market and Cafe opens this week
■ Proposal to convert an existing hairdressing salon at 14-17 The Crescent into a medical centre
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