Trying to build a Venice out west – in Parramatta

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PARRAMATTA has challenged billionaire high-rise king Harry Triguboff to transform the western city into the next Venice after he snapped up a landmark riverside building for $36.5 million.

Meriton Group has bought the old David Jones building, a ghost town in Parramatta’s heart, with plans to build 400-apartment twin towers with 4000sq m dedicated to retail.

Once a glitzy department store in the 1960s and then a factory outlet in the 2000s, more than 50 retailers moved out by 2010, leaving behind a dark, dusty network of locked roller doors.

Councillors are calling for a touch of Europe to revive the dead zone, with gondolas, canoes and paddleboats promoted in a new cafe and bar strip.

Inspired by Venice and Barcelona, with a “beautiful buzz” on the water, Parramatta councillor John Chedid wants a new cosmopolitan approach.

“We are the only city in the world to turn its back on the foreshore,” Mr Chedid said.

“I want to bring activity, canoeing, row boats or pedal boats. Why don’t we open restaurants, cafes and bars to the water? It will be just magnificent.”

Minister for Western Sydney David Borger said it was time to boost the night economy on Church St, with a new independent cinema. “Bob Carr once said it was the ugliest building on the Parramatta River and I agree,” he said. “Cities with rivers are blessed but this building has blocked access to the river for decades. It would be great to see a building that encouraged people to reconnect with the river.”

Councillor Pierre Esber, who called for entrepreneurs to take action earlier this year with a plan to make it “the Cockle Bay of Western Sydney”, said he was heartened Meriton bought the site because they “don’t sit on stock”.

“I call [Mr Triguboff] Action Man. Things get done when Harry buys,” Mr Esber said.

Mr Triguboff, who spent $160 million on five sites across Sydney in the past six months, said the future looked “bright for Parramatta”. “The position is unbeatable and it will be the key to a vibrant new residential and entertainment precinct,” he said. The site had been in the hands of Queensland-based superannuation firm, Parramatta Site Developments Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Professional Investment Services, a network of financial advisers and accountants, that paid $46 million for it in 2008.