In March the Council ran a ‘Community Workshop’ at Balmain Town Hall to let us know the options available for the development of our infamous Carrier/Multiplex site. It wasn’t an impressive event. An outside ‘facilitator’ had been hired to run the show and gather opinions. He spoke at length and we were allowed the occasional half-sentence, or tweet. The Mayor, Deputy Mayor and other councillors who attended didn’t look too happy about it.

Now we’re all invited to a new Community Meeting at Balmain Town Hall, next Wednesday 8th July at 7 pm — not so much a Follow-up, more a Try Again. Lessons have been learned and this time the Mayor will be in the chair. Chances are it will be far more interesting and productive.

The situation at the site is so uncertain and fluid, so likely to develop in ways the local community would deeply dislike, it’s really vital as many people attend as possible. 

See you there!

So what has been happening on the site since March? Locals have noted bursts of activity – digging and drilling...

Workers on the site revealed that Brookfield Multiplex had done a deal with Lend Lease and massive apartment blocks were definitely coming our way.

It turned out that an off-shoot company called Vivas Lend Lease, specialising in ‘quality apartments’, had joined hands with AMP Capital to see what could be done during the 08/09 financial year. Multiplex retained an option on proceedings, but if Lend Lease decided to pull out, they would be left holding the unwanted baby.

Kennards, always part of the planning action thus far, were uncommitted, watching from the sidelines.

The new partners started checking the contamination — as if things would have got any better since the major 2006 investigations!

Vivas Lend Lease has an amusing website (http://www.vivaslendlease.com.au/). We have “a passion for creating great places to live,” they say. “Our vision is to craft quality apartments and homes in bright-life places, places where there’s a vibrancy of people and a hum of energy.” They must be talking about us.

AMP Capital, on the other hand, is far less poetic. We are “a specialist investment manager with $88.5 billion in funds under management”, they drone. “With over 200 in-house investment professionals and a carefully selected global network of investment partners we offer significant depth and breadth of investment expertise.”

Of course, this ill-matched consortium wanted the biggest development they could wangle from council, the biggest FSR (Floor Space Ratio) and the tallest towers. They were also very wary of the local community — us. They’d heard from Multiplex that we stand our ground. We ask awkward questions. We fight any planned increase of traffic in Terry Street or Wellington Street.

Letters start flowing to council. Let’s get the rezoning moving again, they said. What’s the hold-up? Council established a rezoning timeline that lead to February/March 2010.

Not fast enough. Too risky. Council too wary. Locals too troublesome. With the financial year ending and a strange silence from the consortium, it looks like Multiplex might be well and truly dumped.

NEWSFLASH! A 1st of July request for information brought this terse reply: “Lend Lease has pulled out of the option to take on the Multiplex site”.

As the RTA brings in new their fines and demerit points scheme it might be a good time to remind everyone that 40kmh is the speed limit on the entire Balmain Peninsula, from Victoria Road to the harbour foreshores.

The cops would make a fortune if they set up a speed trap on Terry Street. 

Mind how you go.

At the March Community Workshop, development options boiled down to these five schemes:

      A. Light Industry Scheme, 0 dwellings. This requires no rezoning and could happen now, without any input from the local community. All the current non-Multiplex homes and business are retained and untouched. Trouble is, no developer would make much money doing things this way.


B. Town House Scheme, 85 dwellings. Low-height town houses — three storeys along Terry Street, mainly two storeys elsewhere. Rezoning required from now on. Note appearance of new street linking Margaret and Merton Streets.


C. Apartments Scheme, 150 dwellings. Three-storey blocks throughout, plus the new street. FSR remains at 1:1.

   D. Apartments Scheme, 250 dwellings. Now Multiplex starts getting interested — the five blue-shaded blocks go up five storeys. The FSR has been stretched to 1.7:1 and would need a vote by councillors.

Right at the end of the presentation we were shown a further possibility. It was a looming relative of the unloved Multiplex ‘Lifestyle Solution’.


E. The Oh-My-God Scheme. Four eight-story and three five-storey blocks in the middle; three-storey blocks everywhere else. There’s a further new street incorporating Crystal Street. All the current residents and businesses have been carted away, even the petrol stations on Victoria Road.

Next Wednesday we'll discover which of these schemes is most favoured.