First look: Conquest continues Sydney apartment expansion with Lidcombe plans

Busy developer Conquest is taking full advantage of the NSW Government's Housing Delivery Authority pathway to speed up the approval process on new apartment projects across Sydney.

Following its submission for the second stage of the Eastlakes Shopping Centre redevelopment, where it is seeking 736 apartments, its significant uplift of the former Quadrangle Shopping Centre in Castlecrag from 38 apartments to 150, and its attempts to increase density at its joint venture with Woolworths' development arm Fabcot in Waterloo, Conquest has now moved its Lidcombe development to the next stage.

The developer has filed plans for a 27-storey mixed-use tower at 5 Olympic Drive and 16-24 Childs Street, around 800 metres from Lidcombe Station and the suburb's town centre. 

The State Significant Development Application seeks approval for shop-top housing delivering up to 344 dwellings, 10 per cent affordable housing, a substantial retail offering and a childcare centre. The plans are scaled back from a previous scheme, where Conquest has proposed nearly 400 apartments across buildings that would rise up to 35 storeys on the large 5,387 sqm site. 

That iteration wasn't supported by the HDA, which found it did not adequately satisfy the objectives and criteria of the pathway.

Conquest returned with a revised proposal for 360 apartments in a 28-storey building, increasing the affordable housing allocation to 10 per cent. That proposal was recommended by the HDA to the Planning Minister to be declared State Significant Development.

The scheme that has now reached exhibition has been refined again.

DKO Architecture has designed a 27-storey building comprising 25 residential levels and 267 apartments. A number of the apartments are dual-key, taking the total number of individual dwellings to 344. Of the 267 primary apartments, 27, or around 10.1 per cent, would be allocated as affordable housing.

The project would introduce a significantly taller built form to the northern edge of Lidcombe town centre, where existing planning controls currently nominate an 18-metre height limit and R4 High Density Residential zoning.

The site sits at the corner of Olympic Drive and Childs Street, opposite the substantial Wyatt Park recreation precinct and around one kilometre east of the traditional Lidcombe town centre. It also sits within close reach of Sydney Olympic Park and has frontage to both Olympic Drive and Childs Street.

DKO's design breaks the tower down through a substantial podium and a more slender residential form above, with the lower levels intended to establish a stronger street presence along both Olympic Drive and Childs Street.

The podium would be characterised by a series of large arches and deep reveals, particularly along Olympic Drive, where DKO has sought to create a more defined architectural edge while providing views into the retail uses above.

Part of the development is a central plaza that will incorporate retail, a purpose-built childcare centre capable of accommodating up to 60 children, and a supermarket on Childs Street. The residential component would include a significant amenity offering, with a swimming pool, gym, communal rooms and landscaped open spaces.

Six basement levels would accommodate 569 vehicles, comprising 359 residential spaces, 195 spaces for retail customers and residential visitors, and 15 spaces associated with the childcare centre. Another 166 bicycle spaces are proposed.

The proposal comes as the area immediately around Lidcombe town centre prepares for considerably more density under the NSW Government's Transport Oriented Development program.

The Housing SEPP amendments allow for increased housing around nominated transport hubs, with new controls covering height, floor space, lot size, street frontage and affordable housing requirements.

Conquest's site sits just beyond the core of the Lidcombe TOD precinct, making the HDA and concurrent rezoning pathway particularly important in unlocking the scale now proposed.

It also continues what has become an aggressive period of planning activity for Conquest across Sydney.

At Castlecrag, the developer is pursuing 150 apartments at the former Quadrangle Shopping Centre at 100 Edinburgh Road, replacing the 38-apartment scheme that was approved before Conquest acquired the site.

At Eastlakes, its proposed second stage redevelopment would deliver another 736 apartments, including 10 per cent affordable housing, above a two-level commercial podium.

Conquest is also working with Fabcot on the long-awaited redevelopment of Woolworths' Waterloo landholding, another project where the developer has sought to use the HDA pathway to unlock considerably greater residential density.