Westfield unveils plans for world-class retail and office complex for Sydney CBD (AU)

The Westfield Group today unveiled plans for a $600 million, world-class retail and office development project in the heart of Sydney's CBD linking the Centrepoint, Imperial Arcade and Skygarden properties.

The project will help restore Sydney's CBD as a high quality retail destination and deliver a much-needed facelift to the Pitt St mall, Market St and Castlereagh St shopping and office precinct.

The redevelopment will provide a showcase for the best Australian and international retailers and is the latest in a series of high quality CBD developments for Westfield around the world, including Century City in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Centre, Bondi Junction in Sydney and more recently the White City project which will become London's largest shopping centre.

Each of these projects features a strong focus on leading edge design, high quality finishes and the latest retail trends.

Westfield lodged its Stage 1 Development Application for the project this week with the City of Sydney Council. The DA incorporates feedback from Council, residents and adjoining businesses following the lodgement of an earlier DA which dealt only with the Centrepoint property.

Major changes from the original DA include reducing the number of towers from three to one, shifting the new tower north, away from impeding the view of the base of Centrepoint tower, and substantially reducing the number of car parking spaces from 500 to 188.

The new Stage 1 DA includes a comprehensive Statement of Environmental Effects with an Urban Design Assessment, Sustainability Report, Shadow Analysis, and Economic Impact Statement.

As with any CBD redevelopment on the scale proposed, Westfield recognises that the project will necessarily cause temporary disruption. Accordingly, Westfield has taken particular care and devoted significant resources to develop a detailed construction management plan which aims to minimise the impact on businesses and visitors to the area during the construction phases.

This plan would not typically be provided until the Stage 2 DA but has been lodged with Council with the Stage 1 DA this week.

The construction management plan draws on Westfield's extensive experience with major redevelopments in busy CBD locations. It includes provision for offsite marshalling of trucks; state-of-the-art dust and noise control; maintenance of pedestrian movement around the site and innovative hoardings.

The project is expected to be completed in stages over three years.

The redevelopment will improve Pitt St mall for pedestrians by removing all truck and delivery vehicle movements serving the three Westfield properties.

It will provide more than 3,000 construction jobs, more than 1000 jobs in the completed retail centre, and 3,400 jobs in the office precincts.

The project will create 300 stores over a total retail space of 38,000 m².

The Stage 1 DA seeks approval for the refurbishment of the existing office building at 100 Market St to an A Grade commercial office space.

Approval is also sought for a new 27-storey commercial tower to be built above the retail facility, which is proposed to be designed to a 5-Star Green-Star and 5-Star Australian Building Greenhouse Rating specification, recognised as Australian best-practice standard in commercial building design. The existing office complex above Skygarden will remain unchanged.

In addition to the formal Council public advertising process, Westfield will provide a program of briefings and consultations with retailers and adjoining business owners, community groups and interested parties.

Source: Westfield

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