Meriton boss Harry Triguboff’s vision to transform Little Bay
Billionaire developer Harry Triguboff says he has the answer to Sydney’s land squeeze – transforming historic Little Bay in the city’s east into a bustling town centre complete with 15,000 new dwellings. SEE HIS VISION
NSW
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Leading property developer Harry Triguboff says Sydney’s eastern suburbs need to absorb more people to take the pressure off the city’s west.
The billionaire Meriton founder has also challenged the state’s politicians to build more homes closer to existing jobs rather than in areas with limited infrastructure.
The Meriton founder, together with former NSW government architect Chris Johnson, have released their long-term vision to transform Little Bay in Sydney’s east into a bustling town centre.
The plan, which has already been slammed as “overdevelopment on steroids”, combines an existing 13.5-hectare Meriton site, an 11.5ha slice of social housing land and the 42ha run-down Long Bay Prison site, which currently houses about 1200 inmates.
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Known as Little Bay Town Centre, the proposed combined 65ha-site can accommodate 15,000 dwellings which can house 35,000 people as well as having 8,000 jobs and over 5ha of parklands and significant retail and community uses.
Little Bay is also 2.1km from the proposed cruise ship terminal at Yarra Bay – a controversial issue which, like Meriton’s plans, have sparked fierce resistance in parts of the eastern suburbs.
The plans are also predicated on the NSW Government building a metro stop at Little Bay or Malabar – something which is in the government’s own Future Transport Strategy 2056.
“With growth in Sydney, we cannot look backwards, but must look forward like other inner-city redevelopment projects across the globe and emerging centres across Sydney that are also close to jobs and transport like Liverpool, Parramatta, Rhodes, Macquarie Park etc,” Mr Triguboff, who is worth about $12.31 billion and is Australia’s third-richest person, said.
“What makes this area any different? We cannot keep on pushing density west where there is no infrastructure or it is too expensive to provide.
“We have to think of a whole-of-Sydney solution where everyone contributes.”
Between 2012 and 2018 Randwick Council finished only 65 per cent of the properties it was forecast to complete, according to NSW Department of Planning data.
This compares to 119 per cent in The Hills, 113 per cent in Ryde and 105 per cent in Camden.
Mr Johnson said Sydney was fast running out of large sites for redevelopment.
“To find a site this big so close to the Sydney CBD is very unusual and we urge the state government to not miss this opportunity,” Mr Johnson said.
Randwick Council is currently considering a Meriton planning proposal for 1909 townhouses, and one, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
Towers here would be up to 22 storeys – well above the majority single and two-storey homes in the area.
While Arterra Interactive images show Meriton’s proposed long-term development, the company’s current planning proposal is separate to this vision, which includes surrounding sites owned by the state government.
The NSW government sold off $199.4 million in “surplus or under-utilised property assets” in 2018-19 according to the Property NSW annual report.
The Property NSW annual report also said “further divestment of various PNSW owned properties, in addition to the ongoing vesting of Government agency owned and leased properties is likely to occur in separate tranches during 2019-20”.
A spokeswoman for Corrections Minister Anthony Roberts said: “Corrective Services NSW continually reviews its operational capacity for current and future needs.
“There are no plans to redevelop Long Bay prison now or in the near future.”
Randwick Mayor Danny Said said Meriton’s currennt proposal would double the population of the suburb and that residents are “concerned”.
Maroubra Labor MP Michael Daley said that proposals were not in any way balanced.
“We don’t mind doing our bit for future growth but this is overdevelopment on steroids,” he said.
“In 30 years if there is a metro to the area, let’s have a sensible discussion, but until then, don’t insult me and my community with talk of being responsible when these sorts of greedy proposals are on the table.”
NSW Labor Planning spokesman Adam Searle said it was important that “new development is spread fairly across the different communities in Sydney, noting those places that have already taken the lion’s share of new development over the last decade”.
Originally published as Meriton boss Harry Triguboff’s vision to transform Little Bay
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