![\"null\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/vinnies-mid-edit.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe St Vincent de Paul Society\u2019s Community Housing Provider arm has filed plans for 165-home project around a 19th century heritage-listed church site on Sydney\u2019s North Shore.<\/p>\n
Proposed is a 20-storey tower on a three-storey podium that would comprise 88 market and 19 affordable apartments above two ground floor retail tenancies at Lavender Bay.<\/p>\n
Adaptive reuse of a heritage school building next to St Francis Xavier Catholic Church would bring the project\u2019s affordable housing to 77 units with a seven-storey, 58-unit co-living extension.<\/p>\n
A five-storey basement beneath the main tower would provide 118 car spaces.<\/p>\n
Almost half the homes on the site at 1-19 MacKenzie Street and 211 Blue Points Road would be affordable.<\/p>\n
The 5992sq m site on Cammeraygal land is next to the North Sydney Station and less than 500m from the Victoria Cross Metro Station.<\/p>\n
A concurrent rezoning proposal has been filed seeking to change the land\u2019s designation from religious use and mid-to-high density to site-wide high-density use.<\/p>\n
A six-fold height limit increase from 12m and 8.5m to about 73m has also been proposed.<\/p>\n
The 1881-built Gothic sandstone church on the site would be conserved and upgraded for continued use as a place of worship.<\/p>\n
All up, the HDA-approved project is expected to cost more than $288 million.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u25b2 A rendering of the Lavender Bay proposal by Vinnies, known for its charitable works and op shops.<\/p>\n
The precinct surrounding the North Sydney Station would be linked by a new church square to Blue Street Plaza and the station.<\/p>\n
St Vincent de Paul Society Housing Australia provides about 1500 rent affordable homes nationally for about 2500 people.<\/p>\n
Vinnies, as it is popularly known, is an international volunteer organisation of the Catholic Church with 650 op shops across Australia.<\/p>\n
About 200m south-east of the church\u2019s site at 64-66 Lavender Street and 3-7 Middlemiss Street, developer Central Element is planning 160 apartments across two towers of 32 and 23 storeys,<\/a> while about 750m away in the North Sydney CBD, Freecity\u2019s 51-storey, $1.5 billion hotel and residential tower has been approved<\/a>.<\/p>\n