Former prime minister Paul Keating is rallying the NSW government to fund the construction of a foreshore park at Barangaroo.
“Public funding is the way forward to get this built, rather than simply relying on commercial construction south of the site, which may now be delayed by the international recession,” he told reporters.
The minister for planning, Kristina Keneally, has put forward an amended proposal for public comment. Under the new plans, there would be a more natural headland, which, along with northern cove, would “bookend Dawes Point with green to the east at the Botanical Gardens and green to the west at Barangaroo”, Keneally said.
But the revised plans create a “conundrum” the appointed architect Paul Berkemeier told Architecture & Design. “We’re going to get a bit of metropolis down the south end and then we’re going to get a bit of recreated headland, which is really historicised,” he said.
“[The changes are] really driven by a very strong vision that Paul Keating has rather than a deep understanding of the urban potential of the site and the needs of the city,” Berkemeier said.
“Every man and his dog has had a go,” he said.
The $2.5-billion development proposal, which includes an extension of the CBD that will increase the amount of premier office space by between 50,000m2 and 120,000m2, missed out on public funding in November’s mini budget. It is now relying on funding from the commercial sector. However the government cannot rule out difficulties in obtaining money from developers, given the reluctance of banks to lend for commercial projects during the global recession.
Most of the big developers are shortlisted, including Lend Lease, Multiplex, Mirvac, Leightons and Macquarie Property.
However, demand for central Sydney office buildings has sagged pitifully in the past year, hitting a three-year low as tenants cut staff.
The latest figures from the Property Council of Australia show total vacancy is not 255,500m2 — up from about 83,000m2 in the last year.
Sensible development controls are very important in the development of office space if Sydney is to avoid “a ghetto of intense development, or mono-cultural development”, Berkemeier said.
“It is not surprising that downsizing in the finance sector has translated into negative demand for office space,” the Property Council’s NSW executive director Ken Morrison told The Sydney Morning Herald.
The amended Barangaroo proposal will be exhibited at the Department of Planning Exhibition Space, Information Centre, 23-33 Bridge Street, Sydney, and City of Sydney Council, Level 2 Town Hall House, 456 Kent Street, Sydney from 4 February to 6 March.
