#ceerose

Ultimo local Pauline recently brought this to our attention -- the full Development Application for the Ceerose development (at the Edwin Davey Flour Mill) is now up on exhibition, and all the documents are available for us to peruse, until 12 December 2011, online. 

Here is the DA Proposal Statement from Ceerose:

"10 storey mixed use development comprising 136 residential apartments, retail at ground level, 3 levels of basement car parking (for 167 vehicles and 160 bicycles) accessed from Jones Street and a through site link between Jones Street and Jones Lane. The proposal includes public domain works connecting Jones Street and the Wentworth Park Light Rail Station."

The DA Context Statement has some great old photographs of the flour mill (admittedly in low res, but still, we had not seen some of these):

The architectural renderings of the newly proposed apartments have been condensed so much that the images available online are, frankly, quite shit. But here's one that shows the relationship between the old flour mill facade, and the apartment building above it. It's really rather large! Bigger than we thought it would be. But it's 10 storeys, with a lower ground parking area, so actually not that different from how it was described before the DA was submitted. 

The access to this buidling for the side pictured requires considerable works in the surrounding area (adjacent to the Council Depot and the Light Rail stop). The benefit, however, of this kind of thing is that it opens up the access from the lower part of Ultimo (Wentworth Park / Wattle Street), and the upper part, at Jones Street. Previously you would have to walk all the way around, but with this plan, you can walk up from the light rail stop, up steps (or a ramp?) to Jones Street. 

It looks like the building will cause a little overshadowing to the nearby terraces, but this will be limited by the fact that the western side of the building is set back a little. 

The design is by Grimshaw Architects. Here's an interesting rendering of how the heritage facade will be handled: 

More visualisations of the project: 

View from Wentworth Park:

View down Jones Street:

Site plan:

There has been quite a bit of chatter about the streets - and on Penultimo - about the fate of the old Edwin Davey Flour Mill building, following the purchase of the site by property developer Edward Doueihi of Ceerose. (See some earlier posts here and here, by Penultimo.)

An Ultimo local recently informed us that Ceerose has put some graphic visualisations of the proposed development on their website. We've included two of them here with this post.

We strongly suspect these images are not to be taken too literally - as far as we can see, a new Development Application has not yet been submitted to City of Sydney Council, and the design of this apartment complex is no where near set. (There seem to be a number of options included in the graphic with all the yellow bits.)

What we do know is that this is to be a medium density "boutique" apartment building (whatever the hell that means), and that the Edwin Davey Flour Mill facade is to be retained - as per heritage requirements set in the 1990s.

The ground floor may be zoned for commercial use (possibly retail? That would be weird). The building will have to be well sound-proofed, as it is right next to the Western Distributor. These visualisations, at least, do seem to indicate that the development won't be an enormous tower. It could be 5 to 9 storeys (that's an educated guess, anyway).

The "boutique" development company Ceerose has adorned their newly acquired hot-spot - the Edwin Davey Flour Mill site with a large number of Ceerose banners (this site is on the Pyrmont-Ultimo border, right jammed up next to the Western Distributor).

The banners say "Ceerose" which is to say, the banners mean: "watch this space, new apartments will soon to shoot up here", and, let's be frank, they also say "get the fuck out, this is private property" to squatters, campers, graffiti artists and amateur photographer bloggers, who have used the site for years. 

As far as we can tell, a development application has not formally been lodged with the City of Sydney Council, or, at least there is nothing searchable online yet. On March 31 this year The Australian's Katherine Jimenez reported (bizarrely) that Ceerose head Edward Doueihi "dreamt of one day owning the Edwin Davey Flour Mill building" - and, yep, now he does (see Penultimo's post on this matter from March 30). We admit we were unsurprised to read an article in The Australian that is sympathetic to a property developer - he'll probably be hit really hard by the Budget, after all. The Oz also quoted Doueihi as saying: "I've always been emotionally attached to the building".

Curious. While we would argue that quite a lot of people in Sydney are emotionally attached to that old Flour Mill structure (after all, many of us pass it every single day), most of us probably never dreamt of owning it and turning it into apartments. But this ... affection, if that's what it is, certainly makes gives the matter an unpredictable edge. Doueihi is no Triguboff. Or, let's hope not anyway.

 So ... what to expect for the development on this site? Well, until we see the development application, it's hard to say, but rumours are that the old facade will be kept, and we're looking at a medium-size boutique apartment complex (someone said 9-storeys, perhaps), so not an enormous one, by Pyrmont-Ultimo standards. How this will impact on traffic in the skinny little dead-end Jones Street and Jones Lane is yet to be seen. 

These photographs (taken today) seem to indicate that the final terrace at the end of Jones Street is part of the Ceerose property acquisition. Will it be knocked down? Can it be knocked down? Many questions. No doubt, Penultimo will have more to say about this, and you probably will too. 

Here are a few other Penultimo posts related to this site:

- March 30, Davey Flour Mill, 9-storey apartments planned

- Unauthorised Ultimo (graf at the Flour Mill, and other spots)

- Elliot Sumner photograph of the mill as a ruin (and some pickle history)