An artist’s impression of the Forestry Place proposal. Image: Kann Finch.
The charity behind the proposed 300-home redevelopment of the former CSIRO Forestry School at Yarralumla has decided to cash in its 23-year-old investment, putting the site on the market.
The prime 10.9-hectare site now known as Forestry Place is a developer’s dream that comes with an approved amendment to the National Capital Plan, allowing 300 apartments, a small 3500-square-metre boutique hotel, a 9000 sqm aged-care facility and 2600 sqm of commercial offices.
Other land uses include a cafe, bar and/or restaurant, limited to 600 sqm.
Amendment 97 rezoned the land from community facility to mixed-use and set out a range of conditions for the site, which any developer will have to meet.
Working with Sydney developer Oakstand, the Shepherd Foundation, through its representative Gunyar Pty Ltd, had proposed the development and applied for the amendment, which the National Capital Authority (NCA) approved in March 2024.
The agent marketing the site, Sentia director Alex Smith, said the acquisition had always been a hold-and-sell situation to raise money for the charity, which assists children with hearing loss.
He said there had been strong interest in the site, mostly from the ACT.
The listing calls it an iconic site and a blue-ribbon development opportunity.
“It is an opportunity to deliver a premium new mixed-use residential/commercial development in the heart of one of Canberra’s most valuable suburbs, Yarralumla,” it says.
The amendment would allow buildings of up to three storeys plus an attic, with 60 per cent of the site retained as open space and 45 per cent of that set aside for deep-root planting.
The Forestry Place masterplan. Image: Oakstand.
Heritage buildings and structures, including the Australian Forestry School, the former museum, store, tennis courts and Forestry House would be retained and adaptively reused.
Most of the new structures must be located within the footprints of existing or recently demolished buildings. Their environmental performance would be critical, requiring high levels of natural light and cross-ventilation.
They would also need to sit in the landscape according to its topography within the tree line.
The 20 submissions to the NCA about the amendment raised concerns about parking and traffic, heritage values, landscape impacts, and building heights and setbacks.
The Yarralumla Residents Association had called for the development to be scaled back so issues such as the underestimated traffic impacts could be alleviated.
It also said there was no long-term plan for managing the heritage areas.
In 2021, the NCA limited development on the site to three storeys plus an attic.
CSIRO sold the site to Gunyar Pty Ltd in June 2002 with a 20-year lease allowing CSIRO to retain control of the property until 2022. The Crown lessee of the site is The Trustee for Gunyar A.C.T. Properties Trust.
The sale is being conducted as an expression-of-interest process, which closes at 4 pm on Wednesday, 10 September.
