Business Sydney, North Sydney Council and Lendlease call for pedestrian plaza

Business Sydney joined North Sydney Council and Lendlease in a call for North Sydney to have a world-class pedestrian Miller Street plaza to rival that of cities overseas and elsewhere in Australia.

Paul Nicolaou, Executive Director of Business Sydney, says the opening of the Victoria Cross Metro Station had opened a pathway for Miller Street to become a people-friendly plaza that could rival the world’s best public spaces.

According to him, Business Sydney, North Sydney Council and Lendlease had produced a special thought leadership paper making the case for Miller Street to be made a pedestrian precinct from the Pacific Highway to Berry Street.

“North Sydney is experiencing the energy of a new Sydney Metro station and a spectacular redevelopment of its heart,” he says.

“This represents a fantastic opportunity to make Miller Street a new precinct and a vibrant sanctuary for pedestrians. With thousands of Metro passengers coming and going each day, it makes all the sense in the world to have an area of open space at its proverbial ‘front door’.

“We are grateful to Lendlease for its efforts to make the pedestrian plaza part of the overall project at Victoria Cross. We also commend North Sydney Council for its longstanding support for a pedestrian precinct. Miller Street Plaza would add around 7500 square metres of open space giving North Sydney the beating heart of a major CBD.”

North Sydney Mayor Zoë Baker concurs, saying that giving North Sydney a pedestrian precinct to bring workers, students and residents together was an idea that had been championed since the 1970s.

According to her, the opening of the Victoria Cross Metro Station is a sentinel event adding momentum to the quest for the Miller Street Plaza.

“More than $11 billion in investment has catapulted North Sydney into being the second fastest growing CBD in Australia and the opening of the Metro has brought North Sydney even closer to the rest of Sydney,” Baker says.

“Miller Place is vital to injecting vitality into the North Sydney CBD. Existing restaurants and bars will be joined by a variety of new food and beverage offerings for residents, visitors and, importantly, the 80,000 workers and 12,000 schoolchildren who commute to North Sydney each day.”

Lendlease’s Project Director of Victoria Cross, Alex Frankl, says that the area is being transformed into a round-the-clock precinct that would serve to benefit from a pedestrian plaza on Miller Street.

“The Victoria Cross precinct has been in a substantial growth phase since the opening of the new metro, welcoming new shops, restaurants and grab-and-go options, with the commercial tower to follow at the end of this year.,” Frankl says.

“It would be a huge asset to have additional space for our roughly 5,000 workers to spend their breaks, meetings or time outside of work hours and will complement the six new restaurants due to open on Miller Street in early 2026.”

Image: North Sydney Mayor Zoë Baker speaks outside Victoria Cross Metro Station with Paul Nicolaou, Executive Director of Business Sydney / supplied