JQZ Files Plans for 314-Apartment North Sydney Project

Plans have been lodged for a four-tower residential development in St Leonards South on Sydney’s lower north shore.

The development, from Chinese-backed developers JQZ, comprises 314 apartments across four residential buildings from four to 10 storeys.

If approved, the project will have four levels of basement carparking for 542 cars and will include the construction of a local road.

The area of the site at 26-50 Park Road, 27-47 Berry Road and 48-54 River Road, known as Areas 22 and 23, is 11,557 square metres.

Developers say it is “strategically located in the well-connected suburb of St Leonards”, which is 6km north of the Sydney CBD and linked by train to commercial centres in north Sydney, Chatswood and Macquarie Park.

“The proposed development positively supports the transformation of St Leonards South Precinct by creating a high-amenity residential precinct supporting the principles of transit-orientated development (TOD) in close proximity to St Leonards Station and the future Crows Nest Metro Station,” the planning documents said.

▲ A render of the development proposed by JQZ.

The St Leonards development will deliver a mix of apartments—23 per cent studio or one-bed apartments (73 in total), 48 per cent two-bedroom apartments (150) and a mix of three and four-bedroom apartments for the remaining 29 per cent. Of those, 63 will be disability accessible.

The precint will have 3574sq m of communal open space.

Urbis, on behalf of JQZ vehicle Berry Road Development Pty Ltd, submitted the plans this month, which include the demolition of existing buildings on site—31 individual homes. 

The proposed works have an estimated cost of $124 million, and are therefore considered a regionally significant development, so will be determined by the Sydney North Planning Panel. 

This latest development forms part of the council-led St Leonards South Planning Proposal, which was finalised in late 2020 to allow for higher density residential development.

In 2017, St Leonards was declared a Priority Precinct by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment to facilitate the urban renewal of St Leonards as an expanding employment centre and growing residential community.

Two large sites have secured development consent already in the area, a 12-storey mixed-use development consisting of 81 apartments at 13-19 Canberra Avenue, and the construction by Top Spring of a five-tower development delivering 330 apartments at 21-41 Canberra Avenue and 18-32 Holdsworth Avenue. 

It was suggested this year that there was $4.5 billion in unplaced capital in the Sydney market as a result of a scarcity of large inner-city development cites.