The City of Sydney has approved a plan which will see Surry Hills’ notorious Shopping Village — aka “the murder mall” — transformed into a family-friendly 170-unit apartment block, with a rebuilt Coles supermaket, increased public space, and a pedestrian-friendly walk-way.
And hopefully, an entirely new reputation.
Surry Hills Shopping Village, at the end of Crown Street, on the corner of Cleveland and Baptist streets, sold last year for an estimate $100 million, after it went for a paltry 6.3 million thirty years prior. The new owners have big plans.
Even Domain — whose entire remit is to promote property — calls the mall “one of Surry Hills’ daggiest and most ‘degraded’ areas”, which is a neat way to sidestep the mall’s actual local reputation as “the murder mall”.
Although such a name would suggest a string of actual murders — or at least one — the moniker appears to stem less from actual life-taking and more from the mall’s rundown facade, and a general unsafe feeling in the area.
An Instagram account popped up and highlighted the neglected area (and drew national controversy), but lucklustre surveillance and a regular stream of junkies don’t help the mall’s reputation either, to be honest.
Still, all things must pass.
“We are looking at getting rid of that tagline that exists today – and which we didn’t know about until we’d bought the site,” says Fabrizio Perilli, CEO of TOGA Development & Construction, who purchased the site.
“We want it to become a much more inviting environment with all aspects of the community, with a mix of the retail centre and residential and the laneways and park”, he continues.
“That description is something we will hopefully address and fix up and turn it into a safe place with passive surveillance, and a very welcoming part of Sydney.”
TOGA expect to start construction early next year, with a proposed development period of two-and-a-half years.
“It’s a centre that needs some love and attention,” Perilli told AFR.
“You’ve got a massive tract of land that has been under-utilised for many years and it is tired. The opportunity is to create a precinct that caters to multi-use, retail being one of them. And a residential population and hopefully an office population. But they’re things that need to be worked through.”
