MAAS Property Group submit new DA for 'The Liberal' on Macquarie Street

Last week, MAAS Property Group submitted a new development application for their massive Macquarie Street site featuring a 15-storey mixed-use tower behind the heritage-listed Old Bank Hotel building, flanked on either side by low-rise retail buildings.

The proposed tower - taller than the 1 Church Street development - would be made up of a 162-room hotel over nine floors capped off with 41 apartments ranging from one to four bedrooms on the top six floors.

The latest proposal for the Dubbo CBD site - which housed the Daily Liberal until 2016 - is a far cry from the $84.4 million 'The Liberal' development, approved by council in March of 2019.

The approved design consisted of two four-storey buildings on either side of the Old Bank Hotel fronting Macquarie Street rising into two towers - of five and seven storeys - set back from the street. This development would have included 290 serviced apartments and contemporary ground floor retail and upper level commercial office floor space.

"Throughout the approval process we have been very conscious of the local heritage value of the Old Bank Building and how the new building relates to the Old Bank and Macquarie Street," said Maas Group Properties General Manager Steve Guy at the time.

"The Old Bank is a beautiful building and we believe we have made it the jewel in the crown of The Liberal development."

Work on the north tower was originally expected to start in late 2019 or early 2020 with construction on the south tower to follow, starting in 2020 or 2021.

In 2020, Wes Maas of MAAS Property Group said the project had to be delayed for six months due to COVID-19 pandemic related delays and anticipated work would commence in mid-2021. However, the large CBD site still sits dormant.

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Last week's development application isn't the first significant change to MAAS Group's vision for the site since plans to redevelop it were first announced in November 2017. MAAS Group say they have considered "numerous options" for its redevelopment.

First, it was set to feature ground floor retail and upper level commercial office space with 200 serviced apartments and up to 90 residences. In 2018 the plans were amended to consist of 290 serviced apartments and only 60 residential apartments, as well as retail space.

MAAS Group say the latest iteration of 'The Liberal' will better fit in with the site's heritage character by reducing the scale of the built form in Macquarie Street to two storeys and would be more considerate of potential re-development on adjacent sites to the north and south.

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