On The Rails
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday June 1, 2000
The Forum, above St Leonards station, integrates residential and commercial, writes Jennifer Stynes.
Fancy a little abseiling? Or perhaps some base-jumping? Why not do it off the building you live in? It will make it so much easier for the ambulance men to identify you and notify your nearest and dearest.
Clients soaring like eagles from their North Shore eyries probably didn't occur to Garry Rothwell when his company, Winten Property Group, designed and built Sydney's tallest residential tower as part of The Forum development in St Leonards.
They probably thought the main attraction was the view, which is tremendous since the penthouses are 183 metres above sea level - Sydney Heads and the ocean to the east, Kingsford Smith Airport and Botany Bay to the south, the Olympic site and further
west to the Blue Mountains, or north to the Ku-ring-gai National Park and Berowra Waters.
Obviously, no-one who identified with the Jimmy Stewart character in Vertigo need read any further.
There's one distinct advantage to being up so high, according to Winten's marketing manager, Peter Chittenden. "Virtually all CBD residential developments have buildings looking into them, so even at penthouse level privacy is compromised and views are obstructed in some way," he says. "This can never happen to the penthouses at Forum Tower, where the only people with a chance of gaining a sneak look would be airline pilots."
That takes care of the sizzle. Now to the steak itself ... and very choice steak it is, too. The penthouses in the 36-storey building start at $2.1 million and go up to $3.1 million (not surprisingly, for the apartment with the harbour views).
Apparently one buyer was so keen he plonked down $3 million mid-construction. You'd want to have faith in the developer.
Forum Tower is part of a $450-million extravaganza that covers 1.2 hectares. It's the first development in Sydney to integrate residential, commercial and retail fully with a transport hub. It covers the new St Leonards railway station, which has been operating at full steam for a couple of months.
The project was designed by Peddle Thorp Walker? with Garry Rothwell and Associates (the developer is an architect by training).
Two of the remaining five penthouses in Forum Tower have four bedrooms, internal space of about 280 square metres and expansive semi-enclosed balconies that help calm the elements (if not your guests' nervous systems if they're unused to heights). They are priced at $2.45 million and $2.65 million.
Most of the non-penthouse apartments, for mere mortal, have already been sold - about 34 of the 483 remain for sale.
Construction of the second residential tower, Forum West, and a strata office building has begun on the western side of the site and is expected to be finished early in 2002.
Forum West will echo the design of Forum Tower although, at a relatively pygmy 26 storeys, it will be 10-storeys smaller. Within its curvacious shape will be 290 apartments.
Like the residents of Forum Tower, those at Forum West will have facilities such as a heated lap pool, spa and fully equipped gym.
Winten has put apartments in the lower 14 floors of Forum West on the market at prices starting from $232,000 for a studio, $250,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, $290,000 for a one-bedroom with study, and $425,000 for two-bedroom apartments. Apartments on the upper 12 levels and the penthouses there have yet been released yet.
Of course, a project this big means that you might never be tempted to get on the train downstairs. You could work in one of the three office buildings, you could sit in the landscaped central plaza - complete with date palms and water features - to observe the passing parade, and do all your shopping in the 5,000? square metres of retail outlets.
There are restaurants, pharmacy, dry cleaner, newsagency, florist, hairdresser, optometrist and a Coles supermarket. If it all gets too much for you, there's a travel agency, too.
Just in case you wanted to go somewhere to learn parachuting.
Apartment prices
The Forum
Pacific Highway, St Leonards
2 x 4-bedroom Penthouses
278 square metres;
$2.45 million and
$2.65 million.
3 x 3-bedroom Penthouses
245 square metres; one
is $3.1 million and two are
$2.1 million.
3-bedroom
apartments
$630,000 to
$1.26 million.
2-bedroom apartments
From $670,000.
Inquiries, 9929 5000.
© 2000 Sydney Morning Herald
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