Mirvac resuscitates old Marrickville Hospital Site

Mirvac resuscitates old Marrickville Hospital Site

BY RYAN QUINN

Marrickville Council has finally signed a contract to deliver a new library, park and a residential development with affordable housing after twenty years of deliberation

Real estate company Mirvac formally approved the negotiations with Marrickville Council last Wednesday, October 14 to develop the old Marrickville Hospital site.

Marrickville Greens Councillor Max Phillips said he was proud to see that election promises were coming true.

“We fought the last election on a platform of investing in our community. We promised to build a new library, to invest in affordable housing and in quality open space,” Clr Phillips said in a statement.

The development will include approximately 220 new apartments across three buildings, with a minimum of four per cent earmarked for affordable housing, equating to eight to twelve units.

Marrickville Greens Councillor and Co-Chair of the council’s Affordable Housing Committee, Sylvie Ellsmore, said that it was a big win for the Marrickville community.

“[The affordable housing] is part of why this is exciting. Although it’s only four per cent, it marks council starting to own and grow affordable housing again, which is something that councils 10 years ago decided to stop doing,” she told City Hub.

“It is the largest single investment ever undertaken by Marrickville Council.”

The council are set to benefit from $64 million in value from the residential site and a monetary contribution from Mirvac.

“The development of the site will come at no cost to council and will protect the significant heritage buildings – the Old Marrickville Hospital site and Nurses Quarters – which will be retrofitted as the new library and community hub,” Clr Ellsmore said.

“And importantly, those community facilities, the park and the affordable housing will stay in public ownership.”

She said that the affordable housing asset will be used by council to build more affordable housing elsewhere.

Council had invested more than $1 million undertaking a design competition and preparatory works for the new library and park in the last council term.

The concept design for the new library, known as the ‘BVN design’, was selected after extensive community consultation.

Mirvac was chosen following a competitive tender process, with council assessing applicants on their ability to deliver this design, the open space and the affordable housing, with four plans put on public exhibition mid last year.

Head of Residential at Mirvac, John Carfi, said that the development will respect the site’s heritage and meet the needs of the community.

“We are thrilled to have been chosen to deliver this mixed-use project which will provide residents of Marrickville with a much needed new library and community facilities,” he said in a statement.

The site was formerly home to Marrickville Hospital until it closed in 1990.

Marrickville Council purchased the site in 1995 with the intent of building a community hub, including a library and civic centre.

Clr Ellsmore said the Greens had felt the project that been unncessarily delayed.

“Some councillors wanted to talk about selling it and not putting the library there at all, which we opposed. We went through a process, the community fought back and we’ve finally come back to the design we picked three years ago,” she told City Hub.

Mirvac is now required to put in a development application by June next year, which will go through community consultation.

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