National property group Traders In Purple has been appointed by the Anglican Diocese of Sydney to lead the urban renewal of St Albans Church at Five Dock. The future vision for the church site will include a mix of new housing and ground floor amenity to enhance public space and seamless interaction with the adjacent Five Dock Metro Station, currently under construction.
Renewal of the Five Dock site will result in a considered mixed-use precinct to include housing, new indoor and outdoor public spaces as well as office and retail uses that will deliver recurrent income to the Diocese.
Critically, as part of the site renewal, careful restoration of the heritage listed St Albans Church, whose foundation stone was laid in 1858, will be undertaken as well as adaptive reuse of Ridley Hall for a restaurant, community and commercial uses.
Traders In Purple Director George Geagea said the company was looking forward to partnering with the Anglican Diocese to realise a number of benefits for its church community and the broader public.
“Together we are seeking to revitalise the heritage buildings to ensure that they continue to play the vital roles in the community’s life that they have for so many decades.”
The Five Dock project is part of the Sydney Anglican Urban Renewal Pilot Program (URPP), the aim of which is to activate church properties across the Sydney Diocese to become vital community hubs.
Anglican Church Growth Corporation CEO Ross Jones said the program would enable the upgrading of ministry facilities and development of mixed-use residential and social infrastructure.
“We are proud of our heritage and the facilities that we have established for the past 200+ years to support community life,” said Mr Jones. “We also understand that this role continues and requires built form to be maintained and renewed to ensure it is effective and fit-for-purpose.
“Greater Sydney and the Illawarra is experiencing a severe housing crisis for a variety of groups in our communities. A major constraint is the availability of land. We are in a position where we have land and can innovatively integrate much needed affordable accommodation with enhancements to our church facilities to provide active community hubs.
“This is an important project for us to demonstrate that heritage should not be a constraint to providing fit-for-purpose facilities with strong community benefits.”
Traders In Purple will now begin church restoration works and commence discussions with Canada Bay Council and the NSW Government on planning approvals for the 4,014sqm site. It is anticipated the planning proposal will be lodged mid-year.
