Concrete should be coming in by the truckload, but in one of the fastest-growing regions in Sydney’s inner west, there is a development block. The disparity in Rhodes is striking—on the west side of the tracks, towers soar 144m high while to the east there are single-storey homes. Along the Parramatta River, prime sites are covered by older warehouses waiting for redevelopment ... but the time might never come. Billbergia development director Rick Graf says they own about 70 per cent of the land in Rhodes East. “Getting the right level of development approval is difficult but when you have patience and tenacity, eventually you can get something done,” Graf says. “But the biggest problem with Rhodes East, when the state government gazetted a planning strategy in 2021, is that after seven years of going to and fro, most of what they gazetted is, regretfully, not feasible. “The floor-space ratios, heights and densities that they’ve gazetted don’t make the developments feasible and, as a result, a lot of that land will be sterilised for a few decades.” ▲ Rhodes was rezoned in 2021 to allow for 4200 new homes. Image: Nearmap Rhodes East was split into three zones and portions of the industrial land rezoned for residential. “Which is a lower land value than the existing industrial—so the vision they announced was to be an exciting new waterfront entertainment destination and they down zoned it—so it will never come,” Graf says. “Nor will it be enough revenue to remediate the contamination that is under those buildings that have been there for many many decades.  “It’s not going to get feasible by itself, it’s going to need amendments to the rezoning.” However, there is a section of Rhodes East which stacks up and Billbergia notability has sites to its south and north. The most recent development application in Station Gateway East is by Meriton, which have cleared 10 lots to build 285 apartments. ▲ Renders of the tower proposed by Meriton for its amalgamated site at Rhodes East. It has taken a long time for this project to materialise, a Meriton spokesperson says. “We have not purchased land in NSW for almost two years so we are working through the sites that we have,” they say. “The Rhodes project aligns with our broader intentions to provide high-quality apartments in well-located areas with a higher-proportion of larger apartments to accommodate owner-occupiers and families.  “It is important that adequate parking is provided and we are eagerly waiting the adoption of increased parking rates for the precinct.” The design by Plus Architecture has two tower forms, one 28 storeys and the other nine storeys, overlooking McIlwaine Park. The mixed-use development has retail, childcare, commercial and a medical centre on the ground floor of the 5515sq m site. However, projects on the west side of the tracks still far out number these developments in the City of Canada Bay council area. Deicorp recently selected Fender Katsalidis for its 32-level project on the west side of Rhodes at the corner of Marquet and Mary streets. ▲ The Fender Katsalidis design includes 213 apartments, a three-storey basement and retail and commercial space. Deicorp chair Fouad Deiri says the business remains confident high demand in the area will continue. “We’ve been encouraged by strong growth in purchaser inquiries and sales since the start of the year,” Deiri says. This sentiment was shared by developers across the suburb including neighbouring heliostat developer Billbergia.  “We’ve been there for more than 15 years and we’ve already done about 16 buildings in Rhodes,” Graf says. The group recently revealed its design at 25-27 Leeds Street but other sites will be developed when the time was right. City of Canada Bay council was contacted in relation to the rezoning and development activity in Rhodes East but was not available for comment. You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. Click here to learn more.
