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Sydney Architecture Images- Contemporary Commercial
Mid City Centre |
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architect |
design architect: Bovis Lend Lease Pty Limited
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location |
420 George Street, Sydney |
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date |
new office tower to start sept 2008.The DA has been around
since 1988. |
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style |
Millennium Minimalist Modernism |
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construction |
reinforced concrete frame, curtain wall glazing. 35st/140m/office |
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type |
Office Building, retail |
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Tall order … artists' impressions of the retail and office tower which
will be 130 metres high. Photo: Andrew McKenzie |
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| Above- the site currently, from the Pitt Street side. | |
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The original Development Application was designed by architect Dino
Burratini in 1990. There have been many proposals since with emphasis
now on its sun access plane to Pitt Street mall. The tower will be built
on the existing excavated Mid City Centre site.
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Mid City Centre sold for $250m - mall all tied up By Carolyn Cummins Commercial Property Editor May 1, 2006 Copyright SMH THE Mid City Centre in Pitt Street Mall has been sold for about $250 million. The buyer is understood to be either the private Fortius Fund Managementor the Industry Superannuation Property Trust. Fortius has ready access to cash through its relationship with HSBC. Fortius is no stranger to large developments, as evidenced by its site in Kings Cross, known as the Kingsgate development, which includes the familiar Coca-Cola sign, a city landmark. The Mid City sale is one of the largest in the CBD since Westfield bought the Imperial Arcade for $91 million in August 2004 from Stockland. Mid City Centre is owned by City Freeholds, which recently sold the Sofitel Wentworth hotel to Babcock & Brown for $150 million. The Mid City Centre is a four-level shopping centre between the Pitt Street Mall and George Street, to which an office tower could be added. It is the last major arcade in the heart of the CBD to be sold before the properties opposite are pulled down by Westfield. ISPT, GPT and Colonial First Global Asset Management were all said to have been on the short list for the site. The sale comes as the Pitt Street Mall, the fifth most expensive street in the world in terms of rent, is about to undergo a massive upheaval via Westfield's $600 million redevelopment plans. Freehold ownership in the CBD's retail core has been extremely tight, particularly in the "super-prime" area of the mall. Tony Anderson, managing director of Laing & Simmons, said Westfield's 2004 acquisition of Imperial Arcade and Skygarden along with their other Pitt Street Mall assets, Sydney Central Plaza and Centrepoint, has reduced freehold ownership along the mall to just nine owners. "David Jones has just negotiated to buy back their two Sydney stores as well as their Melbourne site from Deutsche Bank for about $420 million," Mr Anderson said. "This makes freehold ownership on either side of Market Street between Pitt and Castlereagh limited to only four parties, being Westfield [on the north] and David Jones plus two private investors [on the south]." The Mid City Centre sale comes hot on the heels of another landmark sale last week, the Gowings building on the corner of Market and George Streets. The heritage building was sold on Thursday for $68.6 million to its neighbour Amalgamated Holdings, which owns the State Theatre. Copyright SMH |
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Fears giant tower will put retailers in the shade By Bonnie Malkin Urban Affairs Reporter November 17, 2005 Copyright SMH Plans to demolish the Mid City Centre and replace it with a four-storey shopping centre and 34-storey office tower are expected to be approved by Sydney's main planning body. But the 130-metre-high redevelopment, which is estimated to cost $202 million, has drawn criticism from neighbouring residents and businesses. The retail and office tower will have six levels of basement car parking, a seven-metre architectural roof feature, two sandstone facades and a nine-storey atrium. It is not known if existing tenants of the Mid City Centre, located in the city's prime retail strip between George Street and Pitt Street Mall, will be able to trade during the construction work or return to the building once it is finished. If, as expected, it is approved tonight by the City of Sydney's Central Sydney Planning Committee, construction on the tower must begin within two years. The building work is expected to take 18 months to complete. But city lobby groups, including David Jones, are concerned over the impact the revamp will have. In a letter sent to the council about the proposal, the executive officer of David Jones, Mark McInnes, said: "We are uncertain of the level of consideration given to the social, environmental and economic impact of such a large development." A consortium of residents and retailers, Concerned Residents and Businesses Against CBD Overdevelopment, also opposes the plan. In a letter to the council, the group's president, Matt Laffan, said tenants of the Mid City Centre had not been told that their premises were going to be demolished. "Of equal alarm is that the proposal entails a commercial tower and retail build approximately 20 per cent larger than Westfield's plan for Pitt Street Mall." Tower developers City Freehold did not return the Herald's calls. The committee, which has the authority to tick off developments worth more than $50 million, is expected to approve the plan on the condition that the number of tenant car spaces is halved to 44. The seven-storey Harry Seidler-designed Mid City Centre was built in 1982. Copyright SMH |
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