Top Spring secure The Newlands, St Leonards masterplan approval
Sydney-based integrated property group, Top Spring Australia, has received official approval for a masterplanned community in St Leonards, on Sydney’s upper North Shore.
The project will be known as The Newlands, across 1.26 hectares at 21-41 Canberra Avenue and 18-32 Holdsworth Avenue, and will see 330 new residences built across five buildings, one for each of the site’s five ‘superlots’.
The project is consistent with the Lane Cove Council’s St Leonards South Masterplan, gazetted in 2020, which allows for increased residential densities in the area south of the Pacific Highway and west of the North Shore rail line.
The project’s Bates Smart-designed scheme integrates with the topography of this part of St Leonards, and sees the five buildings graduated in height to allow for the site’s significant gradient, while also providing residents with outlooks over the adjacent Newlands Park.
The Newlands’ three parkland facing buildings will be eight, nine and ten storeys in height, with some storeys part levels, due to the site’s steep incline, while the two rear buildings will reach eight and eleven storeys in height.
Residences will come in a range of configurations, including one, two and three-bedroom apartments, two-storey townhouses, as well as several penthouses, with all residences designed to maximise a combination of parkland views, natural light and ventilation.
The project will create a highly connected ground plane that includes a 6-metre-wide, east-west site link, connecting Holdsworth and Canberra Avenues, as well as to a proposal by council to extend the pocket park at the end of Holdsworth Avenue.
In addition to the pocket park, the proposal will deliver a central 2,500sqm green spine that celebrates the transition from St. Leonards’ urban centre along Berry Creek and down to Sydney Harbour’s shore. The green spine plays on the dense forest planting of the gullies along Berry Creek, giving The Newlands community an immersive landscape journey and a new type of backyard for apartment dwellers.
Meanwhile, rooftop terraces with large entertaining spaces and lushly landscaped frontages will grace all buildings.
Sydney Ma, Managing Director of Top Spring Australia, confirmed his company’s exciting vision for the site.
“At Top Spring Australia we insist on enhancing the local environment of the areas in which we develop, and at The Newlands, we really want to improve the local community’s use of the site by providing access to enticing green spaces that can become an integral place for locals to gather, socialise, exercise and relax,” Ma said.
“Working closely with Lane Cove Council and our architects Bates Smart, we have envisioned a design that successfully negotiates the sloping site by ‘stepping’ the buildings down the hill so that everyone can benefit from the views of Newlands Park.
“Meanwhile, we have also included landscaped platforms that will enhance views towards and from the park, ensuring The Newlands really does have a feeling of being situated within its own private green space.”
Launch of The Newlands through Colliers will be in mid-2022, with construction commencing in late 2022.
“We have established a reputation founded on the creation of exceptional living spaces that combine the latest trends in art, architecture and design, and our plans for The Newlands are certainly no different,” Ma added.
“We are working with some of Australia’s best designers to create homes that speak to the bushland quality of the surrounding area, with material palettes utilising a natural, robust and earthy selection of materials and finishes.
“Health and wellbeing is also a strong consideration, with the scheme designed to maximise the number of dwellings that are naturally cross-ventilated, while more than 7 in 10 dwellings will have more than one aspect.
