Pyrmont car park to be turned into five-storey office building

The Sydney developers, under the company Citi 88 Pty Ltd, have lodged plans with City of Sydney Council for an office project on the 2760-square-metre site – one of the last vacant blocks in Pyrmont.

The outdoor terrace is one of the building’s amenities. Image: SJB

The developers purchased the site from the Wakils’ company Citilease for more than $7.2 million in May 2015, Domain Group records show.

The new building, through its brick masonry façade, bold arches and similar height, will “complement but (be) subservient to 100 Harris Street”, planning documents wrote. To compare, that site occupies nearly 8000 square metres.

“The bricks will be selected to respond to the range of red-brown bricks used in the various phases of the adjacent (former) woolstore,” the documents say.

The project will provide about 5500 square metres of office space in the suburb, as well as a publicly accessible through-site link between Harris and Pyrmont streets.

Part of the site jutting out behind 82 and 84 Harris Street will be used as an outdoor terrace, which will have a sculptured fire place, pond, gardens and seating.

The development will include end-of-trip facilities, and two basement levels will provide parking for 43 cars.

The redevelopment plans come about a year after Mr Teplitsky and Mr Williamson sold 100 Harris Street for $327.5 million to listed property group Dexus after transforming the previously run-down building into creative office space.

That overhaul was completed by SJB Architects, the firm also onboard to design the car park redevelopment.

“100 Harris definitely had a significant influence on our design for 86 Harris, and also Pyrmont itself as a heritage precinct with a lot of really strong examples of masonry buildings,” Emily Wombwell, architect at SJB, said.

“The success of 100 Harris and the popularity of that building have definitely given confidence to the client to pursue commercial in this area. There is an intensity of commercial uses happening in that precinct and it makes sense to continue that and provide for that.”

What the car park looks like now. Image: Google Maps

Given WeWork, Domain (the owner of Commercial Real Estate) and other creative industries occupy 100 Harris Street, the new development would most likely appeal to the same sector, as well as start-ups, Ms Wombwell said.

A big trend in commercial architecture and real estate was recreating the “grungier feel” and the character of a heritage warehouse building in a new-build commercial project.

“A lot of people are after that kind of style now,” she said.

The car park site was not always vacant. The Coopers Arms Hotel opened at 88 Harris Street in 1845, but it relocated to the corner of Harris and John streets. Beer manufacturers Tooth and Company then relaunched it as Terminus Hotel, which reopened in 2018 after being closed for more than 30 years.

Public documents showed there were several houses and sheds at 86-92 Harris Street by the 1850s.

But all remaining buildings on the site were demolished in 1994 and it has been used as a car park ever since.