How Green is this Square ???

The Green Square redevelopment in the Zetland-Waterloo parts of Sydney is the largest urban redevelopment in Australia involving 278 hectares of mostly industrial property.

A key part of the strategy is the Green Square Town Centre where Botany Road, Bourke Street and O’Riordan Street converge in Zetland.  It’s 4.5km south of the Sydney CBD and already has a transport hub, the Green Square Railway Station, with connections to the CBD and Airport.

The Town Centre site covers13.74 hectares containing some large sites owned by state and local government such as the former Waterloo Incinerator site owned by Landcom, Waverley Council’s Works Depot, the NSW Police Service Centre, and the former South Sydney Hospital site owned by the City of Sydney.

Landcom is the lead developer in a consortium involving Mirvac and Leighton Properties.

Development has been delayed for many reasons, most recently the global financial crises, but now the development consortium wants to change (and upgrade) the scale of the Green Square Town Centre development. It has submitted a planning proposal to the council to permit the increase in floor space without an increase in its contributions for public infrastructure such as drains, roads and gutters.

Current planning controls allow 161,100 square metres of residential, commercial and retail space. The proposal adds 61,980 square metres (about 39% more) mostly commercial space. There would be a 29% increase in retail space and a 13% increase in apartments.

Buildings are capped at 22 storeys due to the proximity to the airport but the new plan would alter the layout, with more internal roads and seven towers of at least 17 storeys. And, the area's long-touted 70-30 residential-commercial split would move closer to 50-50.

So there is likely to be higher density development in Green Square than planned and more commercial than expected.

More information about Green Square can be found at the City of Sydney website  and the Green Square Town Centre website.

Francesco ...