Exclusive first look: Urban Property Group prepare over 1100 dwellings in Penrith and Edmondson Park developments

The burgeoning Sydney developer Urban Property Group is looking to close the year out strong adding over 1100 dwellings to its pipeline with development applications in Penrith and Edmondson Park.

The group is also looking to double down on its success in its completed project Navali by committing to more specialist disability accommodation and affordable housing for key workers.

UPG, led by brothers Patrick and Mark Elias, have submitted plans for Mayfair on Penrith, on their prime 8280 sqm, Lord Sheffield Circuit site opposite Penrith Station, and a townhouse and apartment project over 51,000 sqm in Edmondson Park.

The two-tower Penrith development has been designed by SJB, who won the design competition for the project beating out Cox Architecture and Scott Carver.

SJB noted in their design statement submitted to the local council that the site has a unique opportunity to present a key gateway development into the North Penrith Town Centre as a destination site when arriving at Penrith via high frequency transit.

"It has the opportunity to provide a true transit orientated development and contribute high amenity offerings to the locality including improved connectivity to the Penrith Railway Station and a highly active ground floor retail offering," the statement read.

"As you move closer to the station the role of the built form is to ‘build’ the city, to elevate the importance of the station within the fabric of the city. This civic building, the train station, plays a pivotal role in the daily lives of the people of Penrith."

They said the proposal celebrates the scale of the site, taking the opportunity to deliver a truly civic building.

Mayfair on Penrith. Image credit: SJB

"Our role as architects in this instance is not only to design a mixed-use building that will stand the test of time – to provide great housing for generations to come, but also to design a building that is worthy of its setting, worthy of its relationship with the public interface and indeed face of Penrith Station."

SJB compared the ground level colonnades to those found in Sydney's GPO building, or the buildings at East Circular Quay.

Mayfair on Penrith delivers a double height colonnade with retail at the ground level and commercial office space to level 1.

"The colonnade is enlivened by the energy of the activity captured, provides protection for pedestrians from rain and sun, while delivering a physical separation to the residential dwellings above – helping to manage potential acoustic conflicts."

The two 10-level buildings, which fit in with the current building heights in the North Penrith Precinct, will home 287 apartments. A fifth of the apartments will have one bedroom (58). Nearly two thirds of the project is two-bed units (182), and the rest are three-bedroom apartments (47).

Both buildings will be crowned with rooftops with extensive communal spaces and large lap pools.

UPG's Edmondson Park project at Buchan Avenue will incorporate 335 apartments and 270 terraces designed by Cox Architectures.

The Buchan Avenue, Edmondson Park project. Image credit: Cox Architecture

The project is located near Maxwell Creek, and opposite a future school site.

Urban Property Group, founded by George Elias in 1987, have a number of projects currently in the planning phase of development, ranging from Macquarie Park to Little Bay in Sydney's sought-after Eastern Suburbs. They're hoping to lodge another application in before Christmas in Edmondson Park.

Urban Property Group Development Manager Richard Boulus says there will be a lot of local interest, particularly in the North Penrith project, because the market is starved of new stock.

"We're expecting locals, likely first home buyers, wanting to buy a new apartment and take advantage of the close proximity to the train station and various government grants on offer," Boulus says.

"There's currently no residential projects under construction in this precinct, and only a couple of projects are going through the planning process."