Central Place Sydney lodges final DA submission to City of Sydney

SYDNEY, 30 March 2022

Central Place Sydney has lodged the final Development Application (DA) submission to the City of Sydney, incorporating the completed designs for the two final elements of the circa $3 billion workplace of the future to be created adjacent to Central Station at the southern end of Sydney’s CBD.

Central Place Sydney will be the ‘beating heart’ of the NSW Government’s globally significant new technology and innovation hub, Tech Central, with the potential to account for 133,000 square metres of the NSW Government’s goal to provide 250,000 square metres of floorspace for local and global tech and innovation businesses.

Central Place Sydney will be the largest integrated workplace in Tech Central, boasting world-leading sustainable design and unrivalled connectivity with direct access to the planned revitalisation of Central Precinct, new metro, and transportation to Sydney International Airport. Easy access to nearby education, research and talent development institutions, including the University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and CSIRO Data61, will help the innovators at Central Place Sydney make the impossible possible.

Central Place Sydney will also create a new public realm, integrating retail, dining, entertainment, community, and public spaces that support a vibrant economy.

Kimberley Jackson, Project Director for Central Place Sydney, says the new design elements lodged with the City of Sydney complete the vision for Central Place Sydney as a dynamic space where work and lifestyle blend seamlessly and sustainably.

“These finalised designs have been specifically created to help tech and innovation businesses take on tomorrow – creating a space that combines the lifestyle amenities, connectivity and opportunities to collaborate that are critical to keeping teams engaged and productive in the new hybrid way of working,” Ms Jackson says.

“Even the name Central Place Sydney pays homage to its centrality within Tech Central, connectivity to the Sydney CBD and beyond, as well as its continued role as a place where both people and ideas come together.”

The two new elements within the DA submission are the ‘Connector’ building and ‘Pavilion’.

The Connector, positioned at the Lee Street frontage of the site, will be an architectural marker for Central Place Sydney, acknowledging the site’s past as a cultural meeting place and positioning it as a landmark for the precinct’s future. The 10,000 square metre, 10-storey mixed-use office and retail building will be a highly recognisable cornerstone for the precinct.

In addition to its architectural significance, the Connector plays a key role in accommodating workplace flexibility, both for tech and innovation companies as well as their talent. There are bespoke spaces for smaller companies and start-ups, as well as connections to the other two buildings providing potential workplaces as large as 5,000 square metres across the same level.

Fittingly, the architects for the Connector are Edition Office, an emerging architecture firm based in Melbourne, who – like the companies that will inhabit the space – are at the forefront of their field in breaking barriers and delivering innovative new design concepts.

Edition Office co-founder Kim Bridgland says the Connector is designed to stand as a beacon amidst its urban surroundings, with the aspiration of providing presence and cohesion to the sequence of public squares and pedestrian movement that flows under and around the site.

“With the understanding that this site has been, and continues to be, a critical gateway into Australia’s largest city, it was important to us to utilise the design of the Connector to mark this place and give presence to the square and its role as a meeting place. Our ambition was to pursue a design which allowed the Connector to meet and to hold together both the deep time of its site and the future of technology and innovation,” Mr Bridgland says.

Australia’s foremost Indigenous design and strategy studio Balarinji collaborated on the design and planning to ensure these connections were incorporated in an authentic way.

“Balarinji’s approach is a response to Place and Country in co-design with local Aboriginal knowledge holders, storytellers, and creative practitioners. The foundational Gadigal narrative of Sydney is thriving, and it is vital for it to be integrated in such a significant precinct,” says Ros Moriarty, Co-Founder, Managing Director, and Creative Executive at Balarinji.

The second component, the two-storey Pavilion, was designed by Fender Katsalidis and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) – the lead designers for Central Place Sydney – and will be located on the site of a future connection to a potential Central Precinct over-station development.

The Pavilion will provide valuable amenity space for programmed events and activation and has been designed as a flexible structure that can be disassembled and relocated once plans for future over-station development are finalised.

The DA submission also incorporates responses to the Request For Information (RFI) raised by the City of Sydney. The community will have the opportunity to provide feedback through the City of Sydney’s public exhibition process. The updated designs for Central Place Sydney, incorporating the Connector and Pavilion, can be found on the City of Sydney website under DA’s currently on exhibition.

In addition to working with the City of Sydney to achieve planning consent, there is a parallel process underway to progress the project through Stage 3 of the NSW Government’s unsolicited proposals process.

Subject to Central Place Sydney securing the relevant approvals, construction is targeted to commence in 2023, with the first stage of the project expected to be delivered in 2026.

Central Place Sydney is a joint venture between Dexus and Frasers Property Australia and will be located adjacent to Atlassian’s future headquarters in Sydney.

For media enquiries, please contact:
Wise McBaron
Trudy Wise
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M +61 418 220 028
E trudy_wise@wisemcbaron.com.au

Central Place Sydney
Todd Spry
D +61 2 7907 7067
M +61 439 073 516
E todd.spry@centralplacesydney.com