This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
MULTINATIONAL music companies Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Publishing and The Orchard will relocate their Australian head offices and studios to a transformative development on Oxford Street, as the tired strip prepares to host the WorldPride 2023 event in February.
The newest tenants for AsheMorgan and Toga’s heritage redevelopment Oxford & Foley in Darlinghurst were announced as Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore attended an Aboriginal Smoking Ceremony and general celebration that marked the next phase of the project.
Located at 60, 90 and 120 Oxford Street, Oxford & Foley is being pitched as a workplace, retail, creative, and dining destination, delivering 9,200 sqm of commercial office spaces and 2,300 sqm of retail in the heritage storefronts, including 30 tenancies.
Melbourne’s world-famous croissanterie, Lune and host customer research start-up Dovetail are among the other tenants announced.
Oxford Street is a long-time focal point for Sydney’s LGBTQIA+ community and while it hosts a bevy of bustling nightlife venues, daily trade is struggling. Analysis from the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this month showed nearly one-third of shopfronts in the street are sitting empty along a key stretch of the strip.
Traders, landlords and locals are hoping that a turnaround isn’t far away. That could be spurred by the 17-day WorldPride 2023 event over February and March, and the return of the Mardi Gras that will see surrounding blocks closed to cars in a major street activation. Meanwhile the City of Sydney is introducing new planning controls that could create more than 42,500 sqm of employment floor space and 11,000 sqm of new creative and cultural floor space along Oxford Street from Greens Road, Paddington to Whitlam Square in Surry Hills, with a focus protection for local heritage buildings and celebrate the street’s indigenous and LGBTIQA+ culture and history.
“Oxford Street is one of our great and best-known streets and we’re committed to building on its reputation as an iconic gay and lesbian and creative precinct and a centre of buzzing activity both day and night,” Lord Mayor Clover Moore said.
“It is wonderful to see Oxford & Foley coming to life with a strong commercial offering that respects the area’s heritage and unique character. As the first major refurbishment of these spaces in more than 25 years, this development will restore the heritage shopfronts and attract cultural, creative and start-up companies and will help breathe new life into Oxford Street and Darlinghurst as a whole.”
Oxford & Foley is scheduled for completion in late 2023.
The Lord Mayor told the Sydney Morning Herald that WorldPride organisers were holding discussions with building owners about the potential for using spaces as pop-ups during the festival.
Kylie Minogue will headline the WorldPride opening, while this week the line-up for the closing concert – a “seven-hour queer megamix of live music, DJs and dancing” – was expanded to include Australian pop stars G Flip and Peach PRC, and international alt-indie band MUNA.
