Bayswater Motor Warehouses

The 5,910m² block at 2-16 King Street in Bayswater consisted of two separate warehouse buildings, comprising a number of divided warehouses and multiple tenants.

Sometime during the late 1960s, the existing house and a number of sheds were demolished to make way for the construction of the two warehouse buildings in 1970. These have recently been cleared to make way for the construction of 13 warehouses at a cost of $4m. A development application was lodged on 29 May of this year and subsequently approved on 21 November.

Property History

The property is recorded as being last sold in June 2005 for $2.675m.

Development Application

Initially the owner of the property was intending to construct showrooms facing Beechboro Road South and the King Street corner, with warehouses fronting the King Street side. The development application submitted in May, proposed to instead develop the site in stages, starting with the rear portion of the site. This would see the construction of 13 warehouses spread over 90m of King Street frontage.

Planning approval is valid for a term of four years and upon lapse of this time without start of construction or an application to extend the given period of time, approval is nulled. Whilst there are many development applications that have approvals expired, particularly relating to apartment projects, it’s very unlikely this shall be the case with this redevelopment project.

A number of conditions were stated in the land use terms upon approval being granted, including:

• no human habitation,

• no storage of dangerous, corrosive or explosive materials and

• no storing or displaying goods outside the building or within car park areas.

Furthermore, the City of Bayswater Percent for Public Art Policy requires the owner to comply with a minimum of 1% of the total construction cost (equating to $40,000 in this case) to provide onsite public art.