Joint Venture partners celebrate Flour Mill of Summer Hill completion

Joint venture partners, Daiwa House Australia and EG Developments, will be celebrating the recent completion of one of Sydney’s most significant urban renewal projects, the landmark Flour Mill of Summer Hill development, with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday 8 March 2018.

The significant milestone marks the completion of one of Sydney's most significant urban renewal projects, the 'Flour Mill of Summer Hill' development.The four-staged project was delivered over five years, with the first two stages having been settled and occupied since mid-2017 with the final stage completed earlier this month.

The $340m masterplanned community encompasses 2.4 hectares of a revitalised former industrial site and comprises 360 apartments and terraces, spread over 11 separate buildings, set around a central plaza and community park. 

Located between Smith Street, Edward Street and the light rail track in Summer Hill, the site was the former home of Allied Mills, which took over the original site developed by Mungo Scott.

To further celebrate the project’s completion, a 3-day design event HOME.GROWN. will be showcased within the precinct’s newly-restored Mungo Scott Flour Mill building.

Featuring furniture and lighting designs, as well as home furnishings by independent Australian designers and makers, brands and retailers, the exhibition is part of the Sydney Design Festival.

Held from Friday 8 to Sunday 10 March, the exhibition, across 3 halls on 2 levels, will also include a marketplace, installations, pop-ups, gallery and a series of talks, with an event highlight to be the photographic and video installation showcasing the restoration of the significant Mungo Scott heritage building.

Milling operations at the site ceased in 2009, however many of the site’s existing buildings have been restored and re-purposed, with two separate silo buildings converted to apartments as part of the urban renewal. 

According to the development team, a key objective of the project was to not just maintain the site’s heritage, but to celebrate it, noting the adaptive reuse nature of the project has been an attractive proposition to buyers.

The Mungo Scott flour mill, the project’s final stage, will become a commercial warehouse-style creative hub for the Inner West, with curated retail, boutique food and beverage operators, and office spaces leased by technology start-ups and design businesses.

Paying homage to the site’s significant industrial heritage, the buildings have been named the Malthouse, Durum Silos, Granary, Wheatstore, Baker’s Rise, Baker’s Quarters, Wheat Silos and Miller’s Retreat.

The Design

Daiwa House Australia and EG Developments tasked HASSELL Studio, to design the building exteriors, interiors and the landscape architecture with an remit to celebrate the heritage landmark silos. 

The sites’ heritage was also reflected on the external character of the new structures, with the Mungo Scott building’s existing galvanised steel, off-form concrete, weathered timber, brick materials and detailing used to give a contemporary twist to the industrial buildings.

The three vertical layers of the nine-storey Malthouse work in unison to celebrate the building’s industrial heritage. A central vertical cut-out creates a 20-metre high void in the lobby while horizontal cut outs on each level form a spinal corridor open at the northern and southern ends.

The four circular towers of the original wheat silos, now the Durum Silos, form 56 contemporary apartments across 14 storeys, at the peak of which sit two penthouse apartments with roof terraces enjoying spectacular 360-degree views.

The Granary has been converted to apartments that mimic the scale of the original buildings on the site. An open glass façade on the northern side makes an interesting contrast with the heritage appeal of the nearby Mungo Scott building, while the continuous textured façade slowly reveals the interior through layers of perforated mesh.

The Wheatstore’s triangular structure stands out with its deliberately random placement of windows creates interest within the charcoal concrete façade.

Each apartment has been designed to seamlessly flow between exterior and interior, with balconies and windows carefully placed to provide an interesting outlook from every aspect, while maximising natural light and ventilation. Views extend across the precinct’s landscaped gardens and heritage architecture to the city skyline.

Only 33 apartments remain for sale within the final two stages of the project across the Malthouse, Granary, Wheatstore and Durum Silos buildings. In an effort to complete the Flour Mill of Summer Hill community, Daiwa House Australia and EG will cover the cost of any new purchaser’s mortgage for the first six months, upon settlement .

Completion ceremony

What                Flour Mill of Summer Hill project completion and ribbon-cutting ceremony

When               Friday 8 March 2018 at 10am

Where             Mungo Scott Plaza, Flour Mill of Summer Hill, 2 Smith Street, Summer Hill

HOME.GROWN. exhibition

What                Independent Australian home furnishings, furniture and lighting design exhibition

When               Friday 8 March – Sunday 10 March 2018

Where             Mungo Scott Flour Mill, Flour Mill of Summer Hill, 2 Smith Street, Summer Hill

Tickets             $10 plus booking fee (in advance), $15 at door, children under 16 FREE  via Eventbrite

What they say...

“The Flour Mill of Summer Hill has provided a foundation for a new, dynamic and contemporary Inner West neighbourhood, where old meets new.It doesn’t hide the site’s history, but celebrates it, and we’ve honoured the retained heritage by giving residents the unique opportunity to actually live and work in it.

Also, the broader community can actively engage with the site by utilising the central Mungo Scott Plaza, which will contain cafes and other curated retail, and the community Harvest Park, which features a playground, BBQ and plenty of established shady tree canopies.

We even hosted Australia’s first Grains Festival in July 2018, where over 4,000 people celebrated the local artisan food and beverage culture synonymous with the Inner West. Our residents really enjoy a unique lifestyle living in contemporary HASSELL-designed buildings, interspersed with stunningly repurposed heritage buildings set amongst beautifully landscaped communal gardens.

The Flour Mill of Summer Hill is a fully integrated and connected community with Lewisham West light rail station literally on the doorstep, providing residents easy access to Leichhardt, Glebe, Pyrmont, the CBD and beyond. The Summer Hill and Lewisham train stations are also both just a 5-minute walk away."

- Hidero Eto, Director, Daiwa House Australia

“We like the idea of adaptive re-use, particularly on the scale of this development. We chose the Wheat Silos because silos are totally unique, and the building and our apartment will not look like a cookie cutter standard high rise offering.”

-  Anne Matthews, Flour Mill purchaser

“The (mortgage) offer applies to any of the remaining 33 apartments, and given the unique nature of this project, the interest we’ve received to date, and how quickly the other 327 apartments sold, the offer isn’t likely to last long. We are hoping this offer might make it easier for first home buyers to enter the market, or anyone struggling to commit to a new purchase, to get across the line and reap the rewards of this vibrant precinct for many years to come.

As the project has just been completed, potential buyers now have the luxury of viewing fully furnished apartments. This means buyers don’t need to imagine the spaces as they do in an off-the-plan scenario but can have the benefit of seeing the actual apartments fully decked out.

There are three display apartments so buyers can see all plan types utilised to their full potential."

- Georgia Macintosh, Senior Development Manager, EG