1998: When Darrell Lea said "No" to developers

Above: The Darell Lea store in 2006. Photo was taken by the Author.

In 1998, as the 400 George Street development rose over George Street, the Lea Family (founders and original owners of Darrell Lea) revealed that they had refused offers from developers to sell the site of which was home to their then flagship store. The building was also on the National Trust Register, protecting it from demolition. Developers had proposed incorporating the building into the structure, by the Lea family had doubts about the future of the building had they opted to sell. 

   

Source: Blake, E. 1998. "City keeps its sweet spot". The Daily Telegraph, March 2: 15. 

Darrell Lea closed the store in 2012 when they quit the speciality shop trade as part of a restructuring of the company following financial difficulties and the sale of the family-run business to VIP Petfoods. The company was sold again in 2018 to the Quadrant Equity Group. Currently, the site is home to a Telstra Store and has had restoration works.

The building today. Photo was taken by the Author (2019).

The Lea family must be credited for helping save a building that didn't just mean something to them, but to the City of Sydney as well. While Darrell Lea may no longer sell its chocolates and sweets from this building, it allows a piece of Darrell Lea's history to live on. It is the family's legacy to Sydney.

NEVER BUILT SYDNEY: Early Highrise Proposal for 400 George Street (1987)

A contact of mine at Sydney City Council - Richard Braddish has mentioned to me and other highrise enthusiasts that there was a major proposal in the late 1980s for an office tower at 400 George Street.

We ended up with an office tower a decade later, but shorter than what was envisioned.

Source: Jackson, D. 1987. "Up, up and Away". SMH Style (The Sydney Morning Herald), January 15: 4.  

The 1987 proposal would see the tower rise 43 levels above George Street. The architect was Andrew Metcalf. His scheme proposed that the tower would rise above a five-story retail podium, retaining facades of historic buildings, yet adding a human element to it. The tower itself would rise set back from the podium.

400 George Street as viewed from Sydney Tower. The photo was taken by the Author (2012).

It would be a decade before an office tower was built on the site, following the collapse of the property market at the end of the 1980s combined with reduced demand for office space in central Sydney. However, it only rose 35 levels or 138 metres above street level.

The retail complex became known as the Sydney Arcade which followed an arc from King Street through to the Pitt Street Mall. It offers high-end retail. If the original scheme had gone ahead, we probably might have ended up with a retail complex like the Glasshouse and Mid City Centre as originally built in those times with disjointed layouts etc. In fact, we might have seen a redevelopment of it to compete with the offerings of the current Pitt Street Mall.

The photo was taken by the Author (2004)