Bondi Beach Proposal Swaps Boarding House for Units

A Bondi Beach corner site once approved for a boarding house is back before the Waverley Council with a new apartment bid. The proposal for 148-150 Curlewis Street includes demolishing the building on the site, Penhale Court—a three-storey block from 1822 with ground-floor shops and eight apartments above. It would be replaced by a six-storey shoptop housing project of 16 apartments, including five affordable homes, above retail space and two basement levels. The new scheme follows approval in 2022 for a 31-room boarding house scheme on the site that did not proceed. The latest proposal, filed on behalf of Admark Investments, would reshape the 428sq m site at the corner of Curlewis and Gould streets, behind Campbell Parade. Plans now before the council show 1660.97sq m of gross floor area, with six studio apartments, eight two-bedroom units and two three-bedroom units above a commercial tenancy. Two basement levels would include nine resident car spaces, three motorcycle spaces and bicycle parking. Five apartments would be managed as affordable housing by Home Ground Real Estate Sydney. An application lodged in 2021 sought substantial demolition of the existing building and construction of a boarding house-style project of 31 rooms above retail. ▲ The red-marked site at 148-150 Curlewis Street is behind Campbell Parade within the wider Bondi Beach centre. It won approval in the Land and Environment Court in May 2022 after a proposed fourth floor was removed, but works did not proceed. Media reports at the time put the project cost at $10 million and recorded opposition from residents, along with concern from housing advocates over whether the development would deliver genuine affordability under the boarding house rules then in force. This time, both the product and planning pathway have changed. Rather than return with a boarding house model, the applicant is using the Housing SEPP’s infill affordable housing provisions. Planning documents said affordable housing would account for 15 per cent of total floor space, which the applicant said was enough to access a 30 per cent bonus in both height and floor space ratio. Base controls on the E1 Local Centre site sit at 15m and 3:1 floor space ratio. Under the bonus pathway, planning documents said those controls rise to 19.5m and 3.9:1. Even so, the application still relies on variations tied to height, site area, parking and landscaped area. Penhale Court is within the Bondi Beach Conservation Area. Historical material lodged with the application shows the building was substantially altered in 1991 through rear extensions, reconfigured apartments, new balconies and replacement windows. ▲ Penhale Court, the three-storey mixed-use building at 148-150 Curlewis Street, would be demolished under the latest proposal. Later approvals covered retail and facade works, extended trading hours and a change of use for one shop. Those changes now sit at the centre of the heritage argument. Planning documents said the existing building had “undergone extensive alterations that have removed much of its original fabric and character, resulting in a loss of integrity”. The applicant’s heritage report argued the block no longer makes a defining contribution to the conservation area and can be replaced. Earlier heritage advice quoted in the lodged material took a harder line. The council’s heritage adviser said “the existing building retains significant form and detail from the Inter War period and a strong streetscape presence”, and recommended retention at least to the Curlewis Street frontage and an equivalent length along Gould Street. The applicant is Admark Investments Pty Ltd, a private company registered in 1991. ASIC lists Jose Pinto and Noelia Pinto as longstanding directors and shareholders, with Adam Joseph Pinto, Mark Anthony Pinto and Christopher Pinto appointed as directors in December 2024. The planning report also points to nearby mixed-use projects at 140-142 Curlewis Street and 135-155 Curlewis Street, placing the latest DA within a broader run of redevelopment in the streets behind Campbell Parade. Waverley now has before it a fresh apartment proposal on a site with an unbuilt court-approved predecessor, a live heritage dispute and a new planning case built around affordable housing.

Bondi Beach Proposal Swaps Boarding House for Units

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