Dilapidated Sydney and Melbourne buildings set to receive biggest makeover in their history

By the end of 2025, Canberra’s iconic Sydney and Melbourne buildings will look better than they ever have in Ravi Sharma’s lifetime.

His family has owned the same section of the Sydney Building for more than 35 years, where ‘Reload Bar and Games’ is located today.

“There have been a lot of different tenants in there over the years,” he says.

“My family put an Indian restaurant in there at one point, then a TAB in another, little offices, a photographer’s studio, and we’ve got some old signs in a cupboard somewhere which talk about the Department of the Interior.”

The symmetrical Sydney and Melbourne Buildings on either side of Northbourne Avenue were constructed between 1926 and 1946 as the city’s premier “retail traders’ block”.

However, rather than having one owner or management body take charge, sections were sold off to around 100 different owners and landlords. The result has been the patchwork of faded, chipping and mismatched paint we know today.

“Maintenance has been up to the separate landlords to do, and that’s why – if you look closely – you’ll see slightly different colours all around the building,” Ravi says.

But after several years of meetings with stakeholders later, both buildings are finally set to receive a facelift within the next 18 months.

“After thorough and detailed consultation with each of the building owners, we’re almost ready to get underway,” City Renewal Authority (CRA) CEO Craig Gillman said.

“The ownership structure combined with informal and uncoordinated building refurbishment has been recognised as the main cause of the deteriorating condition of the buildings and their inconsistent appearance.”

Mr Gillman said the facades will be restored to “their original glory and painted in colours that are consistent with the original cream and white colour scheme used when the buildings were constructed”.

The process began in 2021 when the ACT Government adjusted the City Renewal Authority and Suburban Land Agency Act 2017 to bring the Sydney and Melbourne buildings under the jurisdiction of the CRA.

The following year, the CRA then worked with the buildings’ owners to come up with a “conservation management plan”, laying out how to maintain and preserve the buildings going forward. This plan was then approved by ACT Heritage.

At the same time, the laneways that run through the middle of both buildings – Verity Lane and Odgers Lane – were repaved and equipped with better lighting and drainage to support more outdoor dining and events.

These reopened in June 2023, when Chief Minister Andrew Barr said it was the best the laneways had looked in his lifetime, “and I’m getting pretty old”.

Last month, the ACT Government announced $4.2 million in funding for the repainting of the facades, including 24 individual grants available to owners in need of help in covering the cost of the work.

As of 13 August, 11 property owners, including Ravi Sharma, have accepted a grant so far.

“We’ve been given specs on what the finish should look like, what sort of paint to use, where the different colours go – you know, white paint on the arches, and a sort of dark brown on the footings – lead paint needs to be tested and removed safely, and there are certifications the painters need to have,” Ravi says.

“So there are all these sorts of checks and balances to make sure it’s a proper job.”

The paint colours are very specific – ‘Dulux Tangent’ for the cream-coloured portions of the buildings and ‘Dulux White June’ for the white.

It’s anticipated the repainting will begin in spring 2024 and take the owners approximately 18 months to complete, which Ravi describes as a “fairly generous” timeline.

He says owners haven’t seen much point in refreshing their sections of the buildings while this process has been in train, and the notion of coming together to form a central owners’ corporation never really got off the ground either.

“Everybody’s got slightly different interests, so while landlords can agree on overarching things, when it comes down to the detail, it does get difficult,” he says.

“And somebody may have may have painted their building just 12 months ago and thinks, ‘Why do I need to do it again?'”

This time round is different, as “funding does help to sort of galvanise the direction things are going”.

The CRA says it will work closely with the government and building owners to “minimise disruption” to business while the project is ongoing.