Sydney Olympic Park seeking new tenant for The Lodge at Newington Armory

The buildings, known collectively as The Lodge, cover nearly 1600 square metres, and at present contain 160 beds, offices and dining facilities, and have been leased until June 30 by the YMCA for youth camps.

“Sydney Olympic Park will consider most things including sporting groups, youth parliament, leadership organisations, music, education and the arts,” says a spokesperson. “This facility is in close proximity to a range of high quality venues and facilities.”

The new tenancy of The Lodge is for five years. Photo: Facebook

The cost of the annual lease is a tightly-guarded secret, “commercial in confidence” says the spokesperson, but a tenant is now being sought for a maximum five-year term.

It’s a site that could prove popular among businesses, believes Tom Bartlett of Knight Frank Sydney. “There is a bit of a gravitational pull towards the Sydney Olympic Park now, with business parks moving there, the University of Western Sydney expanding and a hell of a big growth in the population.

“There’s going to be more income around and once the Metro line comes on, the infrastructure will develop too. Change won’t all happen overnight, but it is coming.”

Mark Cadman of Link Property Services said area was very pleasant and becoming more so. The Armory Wharf Café was an increasingly popular place to eat and the Parramatta River was a great site of activity.

“For me, the best use would be something like school excursions or conferences for organisations,” he said. “The demand for the buildings will depend, however, on their quality and condition, and we don’t really know how well they’ve been maintained.

“But it would be a great recreational area for kids coming from the country – or from the city looking for a bit of fresh bush air. But if it was on the cards that they could be rezoned to residential or employment land, then there’d be a huge demand for the space then!”

There are about 100 heritage buildings on the Armory site. Photo: Facebook

The Newington Armory is an area of rolling hills, woodland and about 100 heritage buildings that date back to the 1800s. Some of the land is these days used for cultural and recreational space, with the old WWII explosives store now a contemporary art gallery and one of the buildings housing a 19th century gunpowder magazine, installations and smaller exhibitions.

There’s also a theatre, outdoor amphitheatre, artist studios and an exhibition space with the longest continuous gallery wall in Australia.

The Lodge, however, is the only accommodation offering on the entire site, and has till now primarily provided low-cost, short-term accommodation particularly for school groups, sporting teams, music and creative arts groups.

“The open tender provides Sydney Olympic Park Authority an excellent opportunity to review the operation of the facility and the potential for this site to contribute to the growing central arts and cultural precinct here in the park,” says SOPA chief exectutive Charles Moore.

“Newington Armory has developed its offering as an important environmental and heritage location with a growing number of commercial activities and community uses. We would like to see Newington Armory become a thriving cultural and recreational hub for greater Sydney.”

But the real difficulty, said Jason Wright, director of GJS Property, was the lack of accessibility of the area. While it did have parking, it was difficult to reach by public transport.

“It is a really beautiful spot and it is quite unique in Sydney,” he said. “Those established buildings are right in the middle of big parklands, so that would certainly suit something like a conference centre or wedding venue of sporting-type venture.

“But it is a 20-minute walk from the nearest public transport, and it doesn’t have much amenity around as far as things like food offerings. But the population is increasing fast around that area with something like 3000 apartments to be constructed in the vicinity over the next three years. So there is demand for sporting and recreational space.”