Bid to Add Retail to Camden Headquarters Plans

A Sydney-based business group is hoping a variation request before the Camden Council will allow them to build a five-storey mixed-use building in the south-western suburbs to headquarter their multiple business arms.

The Zomaya Group has filed plans for a part-four, part-five-storey commercial building on Lasso Road in Gregory Hills, about 60km south-west of Sydney.

At issue is two ancillary retail tenancies at ground level, taking up 284sq m of floor space.

But at a pre-development application meeting between the developers and Camden, council officers said any proposed uses that are defined as “shops” would be subject to clauses under the Turner Road Precinct Plan.

“At the present time the shop retail cap for the entire Turner Road precinct is exhausted,” the developers were told.

A review of the shop retail cap has been undertaken within the council’s Draft Employment Lands Strategy, but that has yet to be considered or adopted by the council.

The Zomaya Group wants to house three of its businesses across 5761sq m of the four and five levels.

Ethos Urban, who filed the documentation, said those businesses included the Lowdown Agency—specialising in automotive lifestyle branding, marketing and content creation—as well as a construction and housing arm.

“A range of studio, exhibition and workshop spaces are proposed at the site to accommodate these businesses,” Ethos Urban wrote.

▲ The developer wants a retail element, but the Camden Council says the shop retail cap for the entire Turner Road Precinct Plan is exhausted.

The development site is 2710sq m and was formed by the subdivision of a single lot into 13 lots in March of 2010. The building will also include a restaurant tenancy, a café and two basement levels of 136 carparking spaces.

In submitting the clause 4.6 variation request, Ethos Urban argued there was a significant local population that needed direct access to retail amenities before, during and after work.

“The site is not readily accessible to a residential population; therefore, the large majority (if not all) retail customers visiting the site will be workers and visitors to the Lasso Road precinct,” Ethos Urban told the council.

“The limited size of the retail ‘shop’ floorspace proposed (284sq m) is not sufficient to create a critical mass of retailing that would attract customers from a broader geographic area.”

Ethos Urban said the retail tenancies were necessary because the development was primarily for business premises, which could accommodate about 300 workers once operational.

The $34-million project has been designed by WMK Architecture.