Lowy family-backed consortium pulls out of Double Bay project

The Lowy family-backed Assembly Funds Management, together with private developer Pallas Group, have pulled out of the proposed Cross Street car park project in Sydney’s upmarket Double Bay, after negotiations with Woollahra Council hit a roadblock.

The long-running proposal to convert a 380-space car park into a new cinema complex, with retail and community space, offices and residential apartments to invigorate the precinct will now go back to the drawing board.

Assembly Funds, the investment house backed by the billionaire Lowy family, and Pallas teamed up as a consortium for the project and were appointed by the council as the preferred development partner in April 2022, following a competitive selection process.

Over the past two years, the consortium has worked with the council to refine the scheme and progress commercial negotiations of the development agreement. It is understood that they were unable to reach agreement on key commercial terms for the project. The consortium parties declined to comment on their decision to walk away.

It has been a fraught project that started in 2016 when developer Axiom Properties, boutique construction company Built, and Palace Cinemas were appointed by Woollahra Council to work on the redevelopment, following a two-year expression of interest process.

However, in March 2020 Built withdrew from the process. The council launched a new tender process later that year, with the Assembly/Pallas consortium appointed some two years later.

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At the time of the appointment, Craig Swift-McNair, general manager of Woollahra Council, said the proposal “will enhance the Double Bay centre’s social, cultural and commercial life and affirms the council’s ongoing commitment to revitalising the area”.

“This is a great result for the community, and will complement the significant improvements to Double Bay delivered recently by council, including an award-winning library, the highly successful Kiaora Place redevelopment and ongoing revitalisation of the commercial precinct, which has been a major focus for council,” Swift-McNair said.