Investa goes to court in bid to lift North Sydney heritage listing
Investa Property Group is fighting the “flawed” heritage listing of the former MLC Building at 105 Miller St, North Sydney and also pushing for a decision on its development application for the site in two separate actions in the Land and Environment Court of NSW starting this week.
The property manager and developer wants to demolish the office block, finished in 1957 and now largely empty following the departure of major tenant MLC in March, to build a 27-storey workplace at a cost of $800 million with an estimated end value of $1.2 billion.
North Sydney is in the midst of an $11 billion building boom. Work on the adjacent Sydney Metro station is well advanced while there are several new office and apartment towers under construction with more in planning, leading to strong competition for tenants.
“The existing building does not meet modern office requirements – it needs to be readdressed with something with equal merit from a development sense to contribute to the community,” said Mark Tait, group executive and head of development at Investa.
“We think the only way to do that is by a new development that can offer all of those key attributes that activate the precinct and provide all that amenity to support surrounding stakeholders.”
It had submitted a development application for the new building with North Sydney Council in June 2020, but strong anti-development lobbying led to a heritage order being placed on 105 Miller Street a year later by then special minister of state Don Harwin.
Mr Harwin said the listing on the state heritage register “celebrates the importance of this building to the history of architectural design in NSW” – a sentiment Investa strongly disagrees with, culminating in the current court actions.
The first is a Class 4 Land and Environment Court challenge that started on Wednesday with Investa arguing the listing of 105 Miller St was flawed. It is due to conclude on Friday with a decision expected within three to six months.
“We think the assessment is flawed in its determination of the State Heritage Listing and believe it does not meet the requirements of a state listing under the Heritage Act,” Mr Tait said.
Mr Tait dismissed heritage concerns. “We think heritage is static and of its time, and we don’t think the building built in 1957 meets modern office requirements.”
Next week there will be a Class 1 directions hearing on the amended development application. It features 60,000 square metres of net lettable area and was resubmitted to North Sydney Council last December but remains in limbo.
He said Investa wants to get a final decision from North Sydney Council so that it can plan a way forward.
“We’re fully behind our proposal, we think it has complete merit and should be supported by the authorities,” Mr Tait said.
“The two separate items stand alone, they should determine the DA on its own merits.”
Meanwhile, property developers Third.i and Toohey Miller have won planning approval from North Sydney Council for their proposed 22-level office development Warada on Walker, designed by Woods Bagot.
Third.i director Luke Berry said the business is in discussions with a number of potential financial partners and hoped to have funding finalised within the next few months so that development could start early next year.
