This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE former HMAS Platypus site in Sydney Harbour is being opened to the public for the first time in 150 years, with the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust seeking expressions of interest in turning the 1.8-hectare site into a community and commercial precinct.
To be renamed Sub Base Platypus, the site has a lettable area of 12,000 sqm, with spaces ranging from boutique 35 sqm offerings to the 6,630 sqm Torpedo factory.
The chair of the Harbour Trust board, Kevin McCann, said the former submarine workshops would be revitalised to provide terraces, streets, squares and gardens for public use.
“While the industrial heritage values of the buildings will be retained, the buildings and public spaces will be adapted and made available to cultural, community and commercial organisations, as part of the Harbour Trust’s management plan for this highly valuable public asset,” he said.
Revenue raised through the leasing will be invested back into the parklands under the Trust’s management.
The site will include cafés, restaurants and cultural spaces, as well as office and commercial space.
It has eight structures that can be leased in full or split into smaller tenancies. The two-level Submarine School has a NLA of between 195 sqm and 2,500 sqm; the Torpedo Factory; Fleet Workshops, with spaces of between 90 sqm and 1,900 sq,; as well as the Submarine School Gatehouse, Retort House, Submarine Wharf; Exhauster House and the Coal Stores.
Mary Darwell, chief executive officer of the Harbour Trust, said parts of the site would be opened to the public from mid-2018, with the bulk of the work on the buildings expected to proceed over the next two years.
On Cammeraygal Country,the site was once a gasworks providing gas for streetlights, homes and businesses on Sydney’s north shore. The federal government resumed the site in 1942 as a torpedo manufacturing and maintenance factory and a service facility for naval vessels of the Pacific Fleet.
HMAS Platypus was commissioned in 1967 as the base for the Navy’s Oberon-class submarines. It closed in 1998 and was transferred to the Harbour Trust in 2005. The Harbour Trust has been established four years earlier as a custodian of historical sites on Sydney Harbour.
Federal Minister for the Environment and Energy, Josh Frydenberg, said the expressions of interest process was an important step to renewing the former naval site.
Australian Property Journal
