‘Once in a Generation’ Sydney House Forges New History on Pitt Street

It started with a chat and a handshake deal at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in 2019. And a few years later and 6308km away it is finally coalescing in one of Australia’s most ambitious heritage makeovers, on Sydney’s Pitt Street. Like all good stories, the Sydney House project has endured highs and lows, including a global pandemic, a change of development partners, frenetic property cycles, a challenged construction market and rejected planning proposals. But what has emerged is an $800-million, 50-storey tower that will punctuate Sydney’s skyline and blend the city’s history and future in a paragon of design. Sydney House, on the site of the historic former Sydney City Tattersall’s Club, has been a painstaking process of peeling back layers of additions to reveal the former club ’ s Art Deco beauty and reimagine it as a 136-key hotel and 241 residences. New Pitt Street site owner Singaporean real estate developer First Sponsor stepped in to partner with ICD Property on the iconic development, and in 2024 acquired the site of Sydney City Tattersalls . First Sponsor now owns the majority share of the project and with an international hotel portfolio behind it, the developer will own and operate the hotel portion of the tower stack. ▲ The stepped-back form of the tower stack blends the old with the new. While it is the developer’s first Australian hotel, it has about 2 million square metres of residential and hotel development under construction across its Chinese and European holdings. And with that comes some serious fire power that has enabled the project to get under way without pre-sales. The site at 194-204 Pitt Street is on one of the busiest intersections of the Sydney CBD, which Richard Crookes construction manager Elliot Hicks says makes for some serious challenges. It’s a game of Tetris with just 46m of frontage for a loading zone to support the project, and a tower rising above a retained and preserved heritage five-storey building dating back as early as 1891. Surgical demolition on busy CBD intersection But the job of heritage preservation required “surgical demolition”, Hicks says. “We’re probably about 30 per cent through the project at the moment … and we’re really at a precipice of greatness with the structure coming up out of the middle of the project, the jump form has been established and the key sort of structure trades are on board at the moment,” he says. “It ’ s not just a one or two-year sort of investment, it really is a four to six-year investment and a journey for us .” The constrained nature of the site in the middle of Sydney’s CBD has led to challenges and innovations for the construction team. “We have really had to think about things differently in terms of modularisation, productisation, and how do we think more innovatively to get the best out of our materials handling strategy and bring people on and off the project in a streamlined fashion. “I think this level of back propping and underpinning and supporting of an existing structure is definitely something that ’ s out of the box. It’s a once-in-a-generational project, not only for its location, but [also] ... its heritage retention and its heritage position.” While Hicks says “the hurt is in the dirt”—they had to carve out four basement levels while preserving the heritage asset—it was the three-storey celestial crown that he thinks will keep him up at night. “I’ll probably be a lot greyer by the time this project is finished,” he says. Weaving the old and the new But for BVN principal Phillip Rossington, the tower architect, the “distinguishable triangular top” is a crowning glory that, he says, will be visible from all over the city. The sloping facade also provides the penthouses with long balconies and views across the Sydney Harbour to the heads. There is also an emphasis on creating usable outdoor spaces for the apartments regardless of what floor you are on, with 2.1m-high curved glass ensuring unimpeded views and protection from the wind. “We were just very aware that this is a very complex build and everyone has to be on the same page to realise ICD’s aspirations for the site,” Rossington says. Rossington designed a 6m cantilever on Level 14 over the heritage structure and knows the weight of developing not only a legacy project but also a precinct that harmonises the old and the new. ▲ The interiors of the hotel and residences are a nod to the history of the site and the broader Hyde Park precinct where horse-racing was once held. Rossington says the heritage frontage forms the streetscape and how people experience the building at ground plane, while the building’s mass has been broken up into pods and set back from the street. “It’s not just a heritage facade, this building is very different because it’s got very sensitive heritage elements … we had to look at the practicality of delivering the new structure and (lift) core and how you weave it down through a heritage building,” Rossington says. While the tower is certainly full of complexity, Rosssington says the heritage-inspired rosettes on the cantilevered soffit of the amenities level will bring together the old and the new, and divide the hotel and residential parts of the tower. The arched windows of the heritage form have also been echoed through the new tower while the interiors pay homage to the Hyde Park precinct’s racing past. FJC Studio heritage architect Johnathan Redman is responsible for working to reveal the heritage elements of the project and blending four different building styles into the podium. Redman says heritage is often seen as an “obstacle rather than a potential” but on Sydney House it is the “key to unlocking the site”. FJC Studio used digital modelling to map the heritage building and reveal some of the spaces that were hard to discern amid the many fitouts and changes throughout the building’s history. “Through that process (of focusing on ther heritage of the site) we got the city onboard and agreeing that there was scope for a tower ,” Redman says. “And I think the heritage is going to be very visible at the end of the project … this will be a significant space for Sydney once we reveal the preserved architecture. “It’s a challenge, and we are up for that … but as always the proof will be in the final product.” Strong conviction in Sydney apartment market The project’s success hinges on the strong expertise of the broader team and its capacity to work hand in glove together. First Sponsor group chief executive Neo Teck Pheng says he believes the Australian market will improve next year with the prospect of interest rate relief, and purchasers will have the confidence of seeing “two tower cranes on the construction site”. He says the Australian market is comparatively very strong and one that First Sponsor is committed to. ICD Property chief executive Matthew Khoo says Sydney House is an opportunity to “build a new kind of asset” that provides residents with hotel services that “reduces costs because of the efficiency between the two assets”. Khoo says the Sydney House residences will launch to market next year but it would be impossible to pursue construction ahead of pre-sales without First Sponsor providing equity and debt in the project and “the confidence knowing it’s going to proceed”. “There’s very few new projects coming online … and this is reflected in registrations. In the first hour it opened there was triple digits,” Khoo says. The project is due to complete in the latter half of 2027. You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. Click here to learn more.

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