The redevelopment and relocation of the Sydney Fish Market is proving so troublesome the project has turned into a saga rivalling the Sydney Opera House’s tortuous 14-year development.
After decades of false starts and dashed hopes, the new market at Blackwattle Bay in Pyrmont is due to open by year’s end. But in the latest in a series of glitches, retailers who sublease their shops and restaurants from the old Sydney Fish Market claim the new building will not meet the operational requirements of a fish market.
A render of 3XN’s design for Sydney’s new fish market.
Only one of the 38 subtenants is prepared to surrender their existing lease and sign a lease for the new premises, raising concerns the hold-outs will seek compensation for being forced to vacate without a similar or better deal.
But the Herald’s Harriet Alexander has exposed an extraordinary sweetheart deal in the lease between the Sydney Fish Market and the NSW government that includes a provision to grandfather the rent at the current rate of $2.8 million per year for the first 10 years – about half the average commercial rents for Pyrmont.
The government agreed to build the new market on a separate site to ensure no interruption to trade during construction. While 27 new subtenants will be charged at the market rate on the new site, existing tenants will only pay their current peppercorn rate. The six seafood retailers also have the benefit of a long-standing, unwritten promise by management that no new fish shops will be accepted as tenants, which will extend to the new site.
Established in 1945, the Sydney Fish Market moved from the Haymarket to Blackwattle Bay in 1966 and remained highly regulated until the Coalition privatised the marketing of seafood in 1994. Regulations changed, and fishing boat numbers dwindled, but the market received a new shot of life when al fresco dining became fashionable, and it turned into a tourist destination.
Since the earliest days, there have been calls for redevelopment, and in 2005, a long-awaited master plan to modernise the site was approved until the then-Labor government backed away from the project due to lack of funds. Then, in 2017, premier Gladys Berejiklian awarded Danish architecture practice 3XN a contract to overhaul the market precinct.
The subsequent 2019 deal with on-site tenants who owned half the shares in the Sydney Fish Market (the rest is owned by the Catchers Trust of NSW on behalf of the state’s commercial fishermen) has cost NSW taxpayers a motza. Construction costs are estimated at $836 million, including the price of peer reviews and independent experts who have revisited the plans, among other factors, and could rise further if the tenants’ demands for change are accepted.
Sydney Fish Market tenants are biting too hard
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21.03.2024
The redevelopment and relocation of the Sydney Fish Market is proving so troublesome the project has turned into a saga rivalling the Sydney Opera House’s tortuous 14-year development.
After decades of false starts and dashed hopes, the new market at Blackwattle Bay in Pyrmont is due to open by year’s end. But in the latest in a series of glitches, retailers who sublease their shops and restaurants from the old Sydney Fish Market claim the new building will not meet the operational requirements of a fish market.
A render of 3XN’s design for Sydney’s new fish market.
Only one of the 38 subtenants is prepared to surrender their existing lease and sign a lease for the new........
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