Former Crown Group CEO Pitches Aerotropolis Project

APARTMENTS TARYN PARIS 30 DEC 23 The Urban Developer

Crown Group Holdings co-founder Paul Sathio is behind plans for a 505-apartment residential development, one of the first proposed for the Western Sydney Aerotropolis.?

While Crown Group Holdings is being wound up amid a bitter feud between Sathio and co-founder Iwan Sunito, Sathio is pushing ahead with his own plans.?

Sathio Group has put forward a proposal for two U-shaped 4 to 12-storey buildings on a 2.9ha site at 40 The Retreat, Bringelly.?

The high-density proposal is for 505 apartments and ground-floor retail. The latter would abut the Bradfield City Centre, which is currently being masterplanned and overlooks the heritage Kelvin Park Homestead.?

The DKO Architecture-designed concept plans show two collections of interconnected buildings surrounding green courtyards forming the two U-shaped precincts.

A seven-bedroom house and semi-rural property would make way for the development, which has been submitted to NSW Planning.?

Precinct plans for the Western Sydney Aerotropolis were finalised in March of 2022, paving the way for the future development of the state’s biggest project?

The multi-billion-dollar project spanning 11,200ha is made up of five initial precincts and, as it is developed over the next 40 years, land will be acquired for a further four precincts.?

According to planning documents the project would predominantly be residential with basement carparking and ground floor retail spaces.?

“In the upper levels of the project, the uses will be residential with ancillary residential amenity areas, landscaping and open space areas,” the report said.?

“The tiering-built form will provide a variety of communal open spaces with vistas across the Thompsons Creek riparian corridor. ?

“The proposed built form and massing is designed to be tiered in nature, stepping down from west to east to transition and more sensitively respond to State heritage Kelvin Park Homestead and Thompsons Creek regional open space.”

Within the Aerotropolis, the site is part of the Aerotropolis Core precinct.?

That core is planned to be a dense urban precinct around the Aerotropolis Metro Station comprising a commercial precinct for jobs, advanced manufacturing, and high technology to support up to 50,000 to 60,000 jobs.?

The Aerotropolis Core will also contain a residential sub-precinct within walking distance to the Metro, Wianamatta South Creek, and Thompsons Creek, in identified areas not impacted by significant aircraft noise.?

It is predicted to become Australia’s third largest economy by 2036 with its initial stages supporting more than 100,000 jobs and the creation of 11,400 new homes.

The NSW government has drawn fire over delays in the development of the Aerotropolis hi-tech precinct, with the new international airport due to open in 2026, and little to no development in its vicinity.

Almost 40 companies including international giants Siemens, BAE Systems, Hitachi and Mitsubishi have signed Memorandums of Understanding with the NSW Government to become key stakeholders in the precinct.

According to media reports, the Western Parkland City Authority has only managed to start work on a visitors’ centre, described as a “shed with a fancy pergola”, in the past six years.?

The state government has squarely blamed the red tape of its predecessors for ongoing delays.

In a scathing half-yearly budget review, treasurer Daniel Mookhey also demanded the federal government return money to its bottom line or risk jeopardising the Aerotropolis project after the axing of a number of federally funded infrastructure projects.?

AUTHOR Taryn?Paris