City of Sydney council acquires Pitt Street site for $43 million
The City of Sydney has acquired 303 Pitt Street for $43 million as part of its plan for a new civic boulevard. Photo: Supplied

City of Sydney council acquires Pitt Street site for $43 million

The City of Sydney Council has acquired a commercial building on Pitt Street for $43 million, a strategic deal that will pave the way for the development of a new civic boulevard opposite the heritage-listed Town Hall building.

Pittsway Arcade is one of several properties on the block bounded by Pitt, Park and George streets the council has acquired to later knock down and make way for the planned Town Hall Square.

The City of Sydney wants the square to rival other global cities and has been negotiating with owners for years. The plan is for it to complement the new Sydney light rail that will run down a pedestrianised George Street.

The new square would sit opposite the Sydney Town Hall on the corner of George and Park streets where Woolworths is currently located and next to the yet-to-be-built metro station on Pitt Street. Early reports put the cost of the civic square at $180 million but that figure may have changed in recent years.

The Pittsway Arcade, at 303 George Street, was one of the last and largest pieces of the puzzle that the council required for the George Street square.

The commercial tower was put on the market in July by an Asian private investor and the deal was brokered by Knight Frank’s Jonathan Vaughan, John Bowie Wilson and Dominic Ong, alongside Hamish Mackay from TGC.

The agents and the council declined to comment on the deal but it is understood to have exchanged in late September.

The 3410 sq m building, about 300 metres to Pitt Street Mall, is mostly leased with a weighted average lease expiry of more than three years.

There are some other buildings on George Street that the council may yet try to acquire but the Pittsway Arcade was the key purchase that allowed it to lock up the main part of the block that runs from the well-known Woolworths building.

As well as Woolworths, the City of Sydney also owns Hotel Coronation on Park Street, Park House, 307 Pitt Street and most of the strata in 209 Pitt Street.

The square will benefit from a new metro station on Pitt Street, which would serve the retail centre of the CBD. The preferred location of the underground station is between Pitt and Castlereagh streets, north of the Park Street intersection and south of Bathurst Street intersection.

The Town Square plans were at one point feared dead when the former NSW Labor government scrapped the CBD Metro project in 2010.

But it remained a key part of the council’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan and is now on track to be a significant part of the revitalisation of the CBD.

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