Development proposed for six-storey 43 apartments, retails spaces in Botany

A $33m apartment and commercial building – complete with mixed small home and office units to offer hybrid flexible working arrangements post Covid – has been proposed for Sydney’s east.

Apartment and commercial building proposed for Botany. Picture: Planning Ingenuity

A $33m apartment and commercial building – complete with mixed small home and office units to offer hybrid flexible working arrangements post Covid – has been proposed for Sydney’s east.

A six-story mixed-use development with two retail tenancies and 43 apartments has been proposed for 1611-1615 Botany Rd, Botany.

The plans were originally lodged with Bayside Council but due to the capital investment exceeding $30m, the proposal was last week referred to the Sydney Eastern City Planning Panel for determination.

The residential levels contain 18 one bedroom, including five small office, home office apartments, 23 two bedroom and two three bedroom apartments with nine providing accessible access.

There are also five additional soho tenancies, which are associated with the five soho residential apartments.

View of communal open space. Picture: Planning Ingenuity

“The proposed soho apartments directly respond to the growing need in society to have hybrid flexible working arrangements post Covid-19 pandemic,” the proposal states.

“These soho apartments provide for commercial premises on the ground floor, to either operate independent from the residential dwellings above or offer residents a unique lifestyle opportunity who want to work “at home” but have their “home office” separate from their private residential quarters.

View of proposed development from Lenthen Lane. Picture: Planning Ingenuity

“This creates an unique opportunity for people to live and work at the same address.”

The proposal also includes one level of basement carparking with 51 car spaces and a ground level parking area, as well as a large landscaped communal open space area.

The plans said the site’s groundwater table is close to the surface and has therefore limited the excavation for a second basement level which is why the ground floor parking will be provided including eight retail, one car share and two disabled carparking spaces.

The development will have three street frontages on Botany Rd, Lenthen Lane and Madden Cl.

View of proposed development from corner of Madden Close and Lenthen Lane. Picture: Planning Ingenuity

The report says new mixed-use developments had recently been approved and constructed to the east and south of the site on the opposite side of Botany Rd.

“The proposal is representative of the desired future character of the area as the zoning, height and floor space ratio controls now envisage the area for an increase in density, as a local centre, given its proximity to Port Botany, surrounding beaches and transport services to the CBD.”

“The proposed mixed use development is consistent with the desired future character of the Banksmeadow Neighbourhood Centre,” the proposal says.

Residents will be able to access public transport from a nearby bus stop and is about 3km from Sydney Airport and 1km to Port Botany.

The developer has also sought approval for a variation of the height of the building, and the proposal if approved with see four lots of one and two-storey warehouse buildings demolished.