Victoria Cross, a new city block being developed in the heart of North Sydney, and located directly above the new Sydney Metro Victoria Cross Station, has today announced the first lineup of exciting food and beverage operators.
Among the notable retailers, Newtown icons Jake Smyth and Kenny Graham will bring their famed burger joint Mary’s across the bridge. Slated to open in mid-2024, Mary’s will be joined by cultural icon Marrickville Pork Roll along with Only Coffee, Top Impressions Bakery, Sushi Hub, DOPA, North Sandwiches, Machi Machi and McDonald’s. With 20 retailers across the precinct, more venues will be announced in the coming months.
Jessica Paterson, Lendlease Victoria Cross Project Director, said, “Victoria Cross is going to bring a new wave of hospitality offers to North Sydney – we are going to see a little bit of Newtown and a bit of Haymarket along with Sydney CBD icons joining some of the best from the North side of the bridge.
“With the first retailers set to open mid-next year, and the precinct to be completed by 2025, Victoria Cross will soon be a social business district for workers, visitors and locals and complement North Sydney council’s public domain strategy to foster thriving activity from East to West of the CBD.”
Lendlease’s development of Victoria Cross represents a once-in-a-generation transformation of an entire CBD block in the heart of North Sydney. The development underpins the ‘North Sydney Vision 2040’ Community Strategic Plan that identifies the need for additional public domain, green space, pedestrianised laneways and quality amenities to support the growth in workers and residents over the coming decades.
The first retail tenants of Victoria Cross are scheduled to open in mid-2024 and will roll out until late 2025
The opening of Sydney Metro’s City and Southwest line in 2024 will see North Sydney reinvented as a micro-city at the heart of the harbour and a highly connected extension of Sydney’s CBD. With a three-minute travel time to Barangaroo and five minutes to Martin Place, it will be faster to travel from Victoria Cross to Martin Place than to walk from Circular Quay to Martin Place.
Victoria Cross, the catalyst for North Sydney’s revitalisation, will combine new commercial workplaces and retail offerings, delivering a resurgence of energy and foot traffic through the lively laneways, notable landmarks and reimagined public spaces for all to enjoy. A demand for more elevated food and beverage offerings in the area has seen the emergence of restaurants, including Glorietta, Loulou Bistro, RAFI and Poetica, ushering in a new wave of hospitality.
The Victoria Cross retail mix has been carefully curated to further respond to the demand, adding venues that complement existing offerings.
The new Victoria Cross Station will directly connect to a concourse level with shops providing several ‘on-the-go’ convenient offers along with quality essentials for workers, residents and visitors. At the heart of the Victoria Cross Precinct, a new pedestrian laneway will provide a drinking, dining and recreation hotspot, buzzing with activity beyond nine to five. The laneway will be anchored by Miller House, a multi-level food and beverage destination, offering an elevated dining and bar experience.
Victoria Cross – Retail Laneway
Five new terrace restaurants on Miller Street will create a vibrant hub brimming with life as people grab pre-work coffees, or head down for casual meetings. Miller Terraces will transition seamlessly through lunch and dinner, weekday to weekend with diverse offers and dining experiences.
There will be 20 food and beverage retailers across the precinct in total, with 13 of these opening next year in the concourse and laneway. The remaining seven retailers across Miller House and Miller Terraces & The Lobby will open in 2025.
The centrepiece of the new precinct is the Victoria Cross Tower, a 42-storey office building representing the latest global thinking in place creation and workplace experience. It will accommodate up to 7,000 workers across 58,000m2 of hi-tech, flexible, premium grade office space, boosting North Sydney’s economic potential.
Designed by Bates Smart, Victoria Cross will be one of Australia’s most sustainable precincts. All concourse retail tenants will be carbon neutral in operation, with all power to be purchased from renewable sources. Encouraged to set new sustainability benchmarks in retail, Victoria Cross retailers are required to reduce their embodied and operating carbon both in fit-out and operations by more than 20% of the industry benchmark.
