council
Civic Place Redevelopment
What is Civic Place redevelopment? Civic Place redevelopment will see the conversion of 3 hectare inner city block of Council-owned and private properties into a stylish $1.4 billion gateway for the City. Ultimately Civic Place will deliver a City Centre which is a more attractive, dynamic and creative place in which to live and work. At its heart will be a unified new library, heritage centre and public art gallery, providing a friendly, interactive gateway to the other Council services located adjacent to the new Parramatta Transport Interchange. Piazza-style public spaces, an independent cinema, sophisticated shopping, restaurants and entertainment will all help create a social hub, which operates night and day. How will Civic place benefit Parramatta? Parramatta has benefited from considerable public investment and relocation of government functions. The recent growth in private investment will be significantly accelerated by Civic Place, bringing significant public benefit, new jobs, wealth and energy to our City and our suburbs. Civic Place will put Old Parramatta on the map as well as introducing a shining New Parramatta of the 21st Century as it represents the largest urban revitalisation project undertaken in NSW this decade.How will the project be delivered? Council’s decision to redevelop the Civic Place site using a Public Private Partnership (PPP) ensures that private sector development skills are brought to the project reducing risk for the ratepayers of Parramatta. Cranes will rise on the skyline as staged construction work commences. We’ll be amidst “bricks and mortar” in the CBD for some years, but our development partner Grocon (Civic Place) Pty Ltd (Grocon) will work with Council to ensure that disruptions to traffic, city access and day-to-day life are kept to a minimum.What are the projects Milestones? The first major milestone was the adoption in 2003 of the Civic Place Masterplan by Council and the State Government. This fed into the Parramatta City Centre LEP 2007, which is now the most powerful tool shaping our City. This statutory planning framework increases allowable development to provide for anticipated job and housing growth and mandates high quality design for both office and residential buildings. Council signed a development partner, Grocon, in 2006 and in 2008 won the right to compulsory acquire private property holdings vital to realise public benefit of the Civic place redevelopment. Work on the civic and community buildings is expected to be completed by 2012 and the remainder of the construction to be delivered thereafter. |
