From Humble Beginnings
As some of you may be aware, CWH celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. Now that we’re in our 26th year and have moved into our new office at the City West Business Park in Pyrmont, we reflect on where it all began.
While CWH now owns and manages affordable housing across the local government area, around half of our portfolio is in the Ultimo Pyrmont area along with our new office on Saunders Street in Pyrmont.
The Ultimo and Pyrmont area in the 1980s was an urban precinct peppered with empty warehouses, redundant powerhouses, uninhabited terraces and vacant sites. CWH was created when the NSW Government first decided to undertake urban renewal of the Ultimo Pyrmont area in the early 1990s.
In 1992, the City West Development Corporation (CWDC) was created with a charter to renew the precinct. This renewal program was a commitment under the Commonwealth Government’s Building Better Cities (BBC) program. The plans were for an increased residential community and workforce with harmonious mixed-use development.
CWDC was constituted by the NSW Government under the Growth Centres (Development Corporations) Act, 1974 (Act No. 49 1974). The Corporation was established to redevelop a 300-hectare area adjacent to Sydney’s Central Business District, comprised of the following four precincts –
* The Ultimo-Pyrmont peninsular
* The Bays precinct
* Central Railway
* Eveleigh
The establishment of CWDC included a commitment to maintaining housing diversity in the Ultimo Pyrmont area through the establishment of an affordable housing program to deliver subsidised housing and a not for profit affordable housing Company to develop and manage this housing.
City West Housing was formally established in 1994 with the objective of developing, owning, and managing affordable rental housing in the area.
CWH began work with $50 million obtained under the BBC program. This funding has been supplemented by rental income, grant funding, and affordable housing developer contributions (developers in the City of Sydney either include affordable housing in their projects or pay contributions in lieu).
As a result of our initial success, CWH was invited to expand its operations to the Green Square area and now owns and manages close to 900 affordable rental properties across the City of Sydney.
Almost all of the apartments owned by CWH today have been developed by the Company, with a small number purchased on the market, and we continue to look for land on which to build more affordable housing.
