Midrise Mixed-Use DAs Target Inner West Light Rail Stations
The Urban Developer by Patrick Lau
Artist’s impression
EXCERPT
“Build-to-rent developer and manager Alt Living has lodged a proposal for an $54.9-million, eight-storey co-living tower at 18 McGill Street at Summer Hill.
Residential gross floor area across the 202 rooms would equal 5573sq m. With total GFA of 6267sq m, the remainder would be allocated to communal areas and ground-floor retail space.
The 1957sq m site borders Old Canterbury Road, about 6km west of the Sydney CBD, and sits 100m from the Lewisham West light rail station and 450m from the Lewisham train station.
The project is on the Greenway, a 6km biking and pedestrian route linking the Cooks River to Iron Cove, and is next to the Hawthorne Canal, which is subject to flooding risk. Parking spaces for 25 cars, four motorcycles, and 67 bicycles would be provided on level 1.
Reflecting the area’s changing character, the site was rezoned from industrial to mixed use in 2019, and an application for an eight-storey building with 57 apartments was approved in 2020.
That proposal set parameters for height, envelope and massing for the site, as well as enshrining a voluntary planning agreement to provide a public park, community office space at a peppercorn rent, and two studio apartments for council ownership. Alt Living is applying to renegotiate those commitments, replacing the community office space with a dark kitchen for a charity, and pricing two co-living units as affordable.
The build-to-rent specialist has been backed by Melbourne developer Landream, which has been sharpening plans for its own $900-million mixed-use precinct in Pyrmont.
Artist’s Impression | This would be Alt Living's first Sydney and first co-living project, after build-to-rent developments at Melbourne's 11-41 and 100 Buckhurst Street.