The state government has cleared the path for gambling giant The Star to lodge a proposal to build a 105-meter tall luxury hotel tower at Pyrmont, under plans to encourage more intensive development west of Sydney’s CBD.
Planning Minister Anthony Roberts said changes to planning rules for several sites on the Pyrmont peninsula would allow for the six-star hotel, theater and dining complex to be built at the northern end of the casino’s site.
The government has rezoned several key sites in Pyrmont – part of broader plans to transform the peninsula.Credit:Steven Siewert
Under the 20-year development strategy for Pyrmont and Ultimo, there is also provision for construction of a 110-metre tower above the future Metro station between Pyrmont Bridge Road and Union Street; and an Indigenous residential college at the University of Technology, Sydney. The Metro station is due to open in 2030.
Pyrmont Action residents’ group convenor Elizabeth Elenius said of the two towers above 100 meters, or roughly 30 storeys: “They’re both too high. They don’t fit the principles laid out in the Pyrmont peninsula place strategy where development has to blend into the existing area and not compromise it. They’re both totally out of scale.”
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The state government has been working on plans to redevelop Pyrmont since 2019, when the state’s independent planning authority refused The Star’s earlier $530 million proposal for a 66-storey casino tower.
It is also forging ahead with a wave of development around the western harbor in inner Sydney, with planned overhauls for Central Barangaroo, Blackwattle Bay, Darling Harbor and the Bays West precinct at Rozelle.
Roberts said changes to the legal planning controls for the Pyrmont sites – controls known as Sydney’s Local Environment Plan (LEP) – would allow developers to lodge applications for retail, dining and tourism projects.
He said the government’s long-term strategy to guide development for the Pyrmont area more broadly would provide “industry and the community the certainty they need to bring to life incredible new assets”.