Plans Filed for Shoptop in Sydney’s Northern Beaches

Plans have been lodged for a boutique residential development in the Northern Beaches suburb of Collaroy.

Collaroy Projects Pty Ltd, a vehicle of Sydney developer Cite Group, is planning the redevelopment of a site at 1010-1014 Pittwater Road, not far from the beachside area of Long Reef.

The four-storey, mixed-use development would consist of three retail tenancies and 22 apartments in a mix of two and three bedrooms, according to the plans lodged with Northern Beaches Council.

Each unit would have an open-plan kitchen, living and dining area opening on to private terraces with associated basement carparking.

The developers said that project architect Gartner Trovato had designed a “contextually responsive building of exceptional quality which takes advantage of the site’s superior locational attributes while providing high levels of amenity for future occupants”.

“The built form outcome achieved provides for a highly articulated, modulated and visually attractive building form which appropriately activates the Pittwater Road frontage while providing a diversity of housing choice within the local centre,” they said.

Cite Group has more often targeted areas closer to the Sydney CBD but has also been moving further west into such locations as Blacktown, Pendle Hill and Baulkham Hills.

In the suburb named for SS Collaroy that ran aground in 1881, median apartment prices range from $723,500 for one-bedroom apartments to $1.7 million for a three-bedroom apartment after prices skyrocketed during the pandemic.

While development opportunities in Northern Beaches such as Collaroy can be rare, developers have moved into the area in recent years.

In 2021, HCAP Developments secured approval after a trip to court for its $100 million apartment complex, replacing a Collaroy backpacker hostel.