Superyacht marina looks for a belated facelift
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday February 5, 2011
MORE than a decade after the purpose-built superyacht marina hosted well-heeled visitors to Sydney's Olympic Games, plans have been lodged to expand the facility by adding restaurants, cafes, shops and a tavern.Under the proposed $25 million development at Rozelle Bay, two two-storey buildings will be built to provide facilities which the operator of the marina says are desperately needed to make the facility work properly."At the moment it does not even have a toilet, it has no showers, no anything," said Brian James, a former rugby league international and now chairman of the Sydney Superyacht Marina, the company leasings the facility from NSW Maritime.Although there is a cafe at the site, Mr James said it is open only some of the time.The state government has declared the project state significant, removing it from control of Leichhardt Council and giving the Planning Minister, Tony Kelly, the right to approve it.As well as shops and cafes, Mr James said there would be half a dozen dormitory rooms so crews on the luxury yachts up to 70 metres long can have a place to sleep when their vessels are in port."Owners have beautiful quarters and the crew have shit quarters, two or three in one room, so the guys want to get off the boat and get their own room. They will be merely dormitory rooms, very modest motel rooms," he said.Leichhardt's mayor, Jamie Parker, said his council opposed the development because the government had failed to finalise an overall planning strategy for four bays, including Rozelle Bay."The issue is a lack of integration of developments and this does not sit in an overall strategy which is what's needed," he said.He also complained the area was becoming more of an entertainment precinct than a working harbour."Are we wanting to turn this into a function centre, which is what's proposed? How does this relate to a working harbour?" he said.But Mr James said the development was in keeping with a modern working harbour and the facilities would support a superyacht marina with a ships' chandlery, minor repair facilities and marina offices."There will be pedestrian access for everyone around the waterfront, adjacent to the most magnificent boats in Sydney. People will be able to walk along and look at them eight or 10 metres away. It will just be an interesting place," he said.
© 2011 Sydney Morning Herald