Barangaroo, once a container wharf in North Western Sydney, is now the city’s newest financial district. The urban renewal project was one of the biggest in the world. First opened in 2015, it has since reshaped the city and emerged as one of its major destinations.
The wharves and shipping infrastructure had been in this part of the Sydney shores since mid-1820s, with major rebuilding and modifications done in 1900 and 1960s.
By the early 2000s however, changes to shipping technology and the inability to create heavy freight rail access to the site made it unsustainable as a port facility, and the State Government announced that it would be transformed into a new urban precinct.
The name Barangaroo, selected from a naming competition in 2006, comes from a powerful figure in Sydney’s early history: an influential, headstrong fisherwoman from the Cammeraygal tribe that met the first European new comers in Sydney.
The Barangaroo development, with 2.2 km foreshore walkway, is divided into three areas: the Barangaroo Reserve – a spectacular harbourside park that was built on top of an old concrete container terminal; Central Barangaroo – a AU$2 billion development currently under bidding process; and Barangaroo South – a mixed use commercial, retail and residential development.
Lendlease was selected as the developer of the Barangaroo South in 2009, following a masterplan competition. It was also named as the contractor for the construction of Barangaroo Reserve.
A six-hectare headland park with jogging and cycling facilities, Barangaroo Reserves traces Sydney’s original shoreline, recreating coves and mimicking the rocky seaside.
After hundreds of years of alterations by settlement and subsequent port building, the shore was raised and restored back to its pre-1836 level. 10,000 blocks of sandstone now fronted the headland park, excavated from the site during construction of the new underground cultural center.
Barangaroo South meanwhile is anchored by a cluster of three towers called International Towers Sydney. The office space first opened in 2015, with tenants including HSBC, PwC, KPMG and Westpac. More than 16,000 office workers are now based in the new CDB.
The residential Anadara and Alexander waterfront apartments were completed in 2016, while its culinary district, the Street of Barangaroo, boasts hip and upcoming restaurants that makes it a growing foodie attraction for Sydney.
Lendlease and TRX City is jointly developing the Lifestyle Quarter, a 17-acre development in the heart of TRX. The deal recently went unconditional.
The Exchange, TRX’s lifestyle mall, will be launched in the second half of this year. So far, 25% of net lettable area have been secured with tenants that offer new-to-market brands and concepts departmental store, as well as cinema and supermarket.
