1400 homes, 35-storey towers: The plan to transform Sydney’s old fish market site

For decades, the blue concrete buildings on the edge of Blackwattle Bay in Pyrmont – swarmed by seagulls and surrounded by stinky bins – have been home to Sydney’s fish.

Once the Sydney Fish Market moves out and the bulldozers roll in next year, the 3.6-hectare site will be transformed into about 1400 homes for other residents, including student housing, in towers up to 35 storeys.

The NSW government is forging ahead with plans to build apartments on the publicly-owned land vacated by the fish market, as part of a long-term overhaul of the foreshore west of Sydney’s CBD.

The fish market will operate from its new premises at the head of Blackwattle Bay from Monday.

In December, the state government announced property giant Mirvac was the preferred partner to redevelop the old site with Infrastructure NSW into a mixed-use precinct with apartments, including 580 units run by student housing provider Scape by The Living Company. It will include a foreshore promenade and boardwalk to connect the site to the adjacent new Sydney Fish Market building, completing the missing link in a 15-kilometre foreshore walk from Rozelle Bay to Woolloomooloo.

Pyrmont residents have previously raised concerns about the scale of development proposed for the site between the bay and Western Distributor. But Mirvac’s chief executive of development, Stuart Penklis, this week described the planned transformation as “a game-changer for Sydney.

“Our vision has purposely incorporated a variety of uses including residential, student, commercial and retail to deliver a vibrant and connected world-class waterfront precinct,” Penklis said.

The project is expected to be delivered over multiple stages, pending planning approvals. Early works, including demolition of the existing fish market buildings, is scheduled to start next year.

The government says the first homes should be completed about 2028, with work on the project continuing over the next six to eight years. The project is subject to an affordable housing contribution of 7.5 per cent of developed floor space.

Planning and Public Spaces Minister Paul Scully said the government had last year rezoned the waterfront to enable construction of 1500 homes. About 100 of those dwellings are earmarked for privately owned land, which includes the Hymix concrete batching plant, on a neighbouring site.

“The old Sydney Fish Market site offers a unique opportunity for new homes in a central location, close to the CBD, public transport, public spaces and good amenity,” Scully said.

“Early stages of the project will deliver a generous foreshore promenade and an overwater boardwalk, creating new public spaces for everyone to enjoy.”

Penklis said parts of the old buildings would be “adaptively re-used” in the new development, and Mirvac would consult the local community as it prepared more detailed proposals for the scheme.

“The beating heart of the precinct will be significant new public domain ... equivalent to around four football fields, with a central pedestrianised lane, cycleways, a skate park, community kayak storage and a community pavilion.”

Construction work on Bank Street Park, on another slice of state government-owned land on the Blackwattle Bay foreshore beneath the Anzac Bridge, is expected to start in coming weeks.

The land around Blackwattle Bay, which includes industrial pockets, has been designated for more residential development around future metro train stops at Pyrmont and The Bays in Rozelle.

The City of Sydney Council plans to deliver as many as 4800 new homes around Pyrmont, while the Minns government said more than 2000 homes would be built in the area after it agreed to end greyhound racing at Wentworth Park and retain the inner-city site for sporting fields and parkland.

The government has said the Blackwattle Bay precinct will ultimately get 7300 new homes. It is still finalising plans to build more housing around The Bays metro station.

Nearby resident Elizabeth Elenius, a former convenor of the Pyrmont Action Group, worried the rebuilt fish market site would create a “wall of development”, and that the influx of residents would strain roads and infrastructure.

“It’s appalling. The 35-storey towers are anathema to the Pyrmont Peninsula Place Strategy, which talks about stepping up building heights as you move away from the waterfront,” Elenius said.

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said the redevelopment should include a portion of housing for critical workers, so the dwellings were not occupied solely by “property investors and short-term renters”.

“It is such a good opportunity to provide key worker housing, whether it’s for police from the nearby Day Street police station in shared equity schemes, healthcare workers at RPA [Hospital] or teachers at various schools, the city needs homes for the people who keep it moving.”

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