Inside Marrickville Traders: A historic Sydney industrial site reborn as a creative precinct

But today, the 12,000 square metres of space in Sydney’s inner-west Marrickville has been rebirthed, this time as a major creative precinct that welcomes the community in rather than shutting them out, with hopes of becoming a major attraction. 

A multi-stage precinct designed for community and creativity

Marrickville Traders, bounded by Rich, Shepherd and Chapel streets, is now slowly springing to life after the completion of a massive adaptive re-use project, with the first tenants in stage 1 of its leasing starting to move in, and stage 2 now launching. 

“It is, quite simply, an amazing place with so much industrial heritage,” says Jason Varker-Miles, the chief executive of property company JVMC Holdings, which also created the successful Precinct 75 in nearby St Peters. “Stage 1 was 19 tenant spaces across 5000 square metres, predominantly for tenants engaging with the community, like food and beverage, medical, entertainment and retail.

“Stage 2 is 22 tenant spaces across 3000 square metres – a combination of studios and offices for creatives, agencies and professionals with growing or emerging businesses, with several spaces also perfect for engaging with the community.

“The final stage will launch in October and is 1350 square metres dedicated to health, fitness and wellbeing, with the rest of the space being communal.”

Why Marrickville is becoming Sydney’s next creative hotspot

The launch comes not long after Marrickville was named one of the 10 coolest neighbourhoods in the world by Time Out magazine, recognising how the suburb has transformed from its industrial past to such a lively mixed-use area. Along with that has come a rise in demand for quality commercial space.

In addition, the upgrading of the now-closed Marrickville station for its inclusion on the Metro line is set to finish later this year, while the Inner West Council is planning around 31,000 new homes across the local government area over the next 15 years. Marrickville South is earmarked for the greatest number.

Varker-Miles commissioned Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects to convert the old industrial space into Marrickville Traders, with the idea of providing more space for new and emerging businesses, or established ones that could be wooed to open in, or move to, the area.

Founding director Dr Tim Greer has been excited by the challenge. “It was a pretty extraordinary collection of buildings,” he says. “The amazing thing was that you had almost every kind of truss imaginable on the site from timber to steel as we went through the ages.

“We wanted to keep as much of that industrial character as we could while still making it safe and accessible to other users. We still have a scheme to put windows along the Chapel Street side which will very nicely activate that street.

“We had a very simple design strategy: to highlight everything that’s fantastic and eccentric there, while destroying as little as possible so as not to sanitise it, and opening it up to everyone.”

So far, businesses have responded well to the offering. The precinct’s inaugural tenants is a mix of creatives and services, including a renewable energy company developing light-beam charging for drones, Aquila Space Technologies, an urgent-care medical centre, fresh produce market Spread and nano-distillery Project Hydrosol. There are also plans for a cat cafe.

“The area has been completely repurposed, and it now feels like such a creative zone, you just want to be a part of it,” says restaurateur Jenny Qin, who’s just signed a lease to enter Marrickville Traders with a branch of her family’s famed Chinatown Noodles restaurants. 

Alongside it, she’ll operate a yoghurt bar, Boba Yo, and is also launching Planet Playhouse, a play centre for kids that will be the first in Australia to have an AI element with augmented reality games. 

“I like the atmosphere of the space, and I’ll love being in the same environment as other people with similar values in terms of bringing authentic products but in modern ways,” Qin says. “You feel like they’ve done a really good job of converting the space with a streamlined design but keeping that industrial background.”

Spaces in the precinct, seven kilometres from the CBD, range from boutique 35-square-metre studios to much larger 1400-square-metre spaces, with 24/7 secure access, flexible lease terms, parking and end-of-trip facilities.  

Varker-Miles says tenants will find it easy to stay all day, with all services around them. “They’ll be able to visit the cat cafe for coffee, eat lunch, have a haircut, take their kids to the play centre and then order dinner at the noodle restaurant,” he says.