source : the age
North Sydney’s languishing MLC Building will be revived for office workers after the former owners sold the block, staving off plans to partly raze the state heritage-listed complex for a 22-storey tower.
Wentworth Group bought the modernist-style Miller Street building for more than $100 million in February, following years of heritage battles and numerous attempts by developer Investa to revamp the site with a gleaming new office tower, education facility or build-to-rent apartments.
Wentworth has started refurbishing the building into “A-grade” commercial space and taking prospective tenants through. It expects the block to be upgraded, leased and opened by next year.
North Sydney Mayor Zoe Baker said upgrading the deserted building for office workers would contribute to the revival of the CBD spurred by the opening of the Victoria Cross metro station.
“The council would welcome the original use being reinstated and the building being given some care and attention,” Baker said.
The plan to use the building, which has been vacant since 2022, underscores a citywide debate about balancing the preservation of Sydney’s commercial centres with the state government’s push for sorely needed housing.
Wentworth Group hopes the upgraded building will reactivate the prominent site within North Sydney’s core, which has rapidly transformed around the metro station.
The company’s plan represents the latest chapter in a long-running saga to redevelop the building, which was North Sydney’s first high-rise office block when it was completed in 1957.
Investa first submitted plans to North Sydney Council in 2020, seeking to demolish the complex to make way for a $500 million office tower, sparking criticism from architects and heritage advocates.
The outcry prompted the state government to list the building on the State Heritage Register in 2021. A NSW court later overturned that decision due to an “administrative error”, before the government reinstated the block to the register, citing its “ongoing and irreplaceable heritage values”, in 2024.
Meantime, Investa pursued several proposals to redevelop the site. One of those applications, which involved converting the block into 340 build-to-rent units, was withdrawn.
The Sydney North Planning Panel last year approved a plan to refurbish the dominant Miller Street wing, while demolishing the smaller Denison Street wing for a slender 22-storey office tower.
In March, the state government approved separate plans for a similar redevelopment, to be used as a university campus. In its decision, the planning department acknowledged the development “would result in significant heritage impacts and would not be the optimal outcome”, but said changes to the Miller Street wing were appropriate given the building’s age, and fire and structural problems.
“[This would] allow for the greatest opportunity to conserve the key elements to the heritage significance of the building that can be widely appreciated that have the greatest potential to support the ongoing restoration, conservation and appreciation of the building,” the decision said.
Wentworth Group said: “Whilst the asset has approval for a 48,000-square-metre premium commercial development, it is unlikely to be activated under Wentworth’s ownership.”
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