TOGA lodge Kensington apartment plans
Joel Robinson | 20 Jan 2022
The prominent Sydney developer, TOGA, has lodged plans for their next residential apartment development.
They’ll be developing for the first time in Kensington, where they’ve submitted a development application for 142 apartments above a mix of commercial and retail at street level. The expectation is approval and sales launch will occur around April time.
Turner Studio has designed the $59 million project at 137-151 Anzac Parade, having handled TOGA’s popular mixed-use Marrickville precinct, Wicks Place, which is around 50 per cent sold.
TOGA’s GM of sales, Anthony Falas, says the Kensington development is targeting the higher end owner-occupier.
“The two-bedders are 80, 85 sqm, at the larger end of the scale for a typical two-bedroom apartments,” Falas told Urban.
“We’ve dedicated over 75 per cent of the building to the two and three-bedroom product, offering something that is rare for the area”
Falas added that TOGA wanted to cater for a different market than the area is used to, going away from the more common developments which are targeted at the student accommodation given the proximity to the UNSW Randwick Campus.
TOGA are also offering a range of unique apartments in the project. The SoHo apartments, spread across two levels, give owners the opportunity to have a separate work from home space downstairs, with a studio-style apartment upstairs, accessed by an external staircase.
Falas suggests there may well be buyers of those apartments who will lease out the ground level office space.
Turner Studio Director Kevin Driver, who directed the development application design and documentation, noted in the application that the proposed development will provide a built environment suited to the context that responds to the desired future characteristics of the area, while taking cues from the existing context in terms of streetscape, material and landscaping.
“This will be achieved by well-designed building and public realm offering good amenity for the resident population and the visitors to the site,” Driver said.
“By integrating and responding to features unique to its locality the development will provide a higher quality of contextually relevant spatial experience.
“The context is undergoing change following the emergence of the Kensington and Kingsford Town Centres Development Control Plan.”
The development will feature rooftop communal open space with an outdoor dining barbecue area, flexible activity zones, a study and recreation area, and communal gardens, all with the aim to improve wellness of the residents.
There will be further communal open space at street level, with a future laneway proposed.
Turner advise that apartment layouts have been developed to maximise the number of north, west and east facing living spaces to ensure each building meets solar access requirements.
Some 20 per cent of the apartments will be adaptable in order to provide variety to potential purchasers.
“The site and its environs are undergoing change from a lower-scale residential suburb/retail strip to a higher density residential/mixed-use precinct, incorporating new open space and laneways,” Driver added.
“The architecture and materiality of the proposal draws on the local vernacular, while responding to precinct.
“The architectural design intent and principles are based on a series of articulated volumes to both Anzac Parade and the future laneway to the west. These are given a series of familial characterisations through the use of brick frames/blades and expressed slab edges.”
Fast facts:
– 142 apartments
– 19 one beds
– 78 two beds
– 31 three beds
– 14 SOHO apartments
– 691 sqm of commercial, 724 sqm of retail