By ANNA USHER

Plans to transform a Neutral Bay car park into a public plaza have been scrapped after supermarket giant Coles and developer Arkadia knocked back Council’s terms to deliver the project.

North Sydney Council formally scrapped the plan on Monday night, after hunting for a builder cost ratepayers $277,682 and left the project with “no committed funding for its delivery”.

The Grosvenor St Plaza has been a hot button issue for a decade, with plans to transform the busy car park into a public square lined with shops and trees.

Coles, which owns the supermarket on the site, was the only bidder, offering to build the plaza and an 85-space public car park underneath with partner Titanium.

Councillors knocked the bid back in August over “concerns regarding the cost to Council and the allocation of risk”, then gave Coles and Arkadia one last shot if they agreed to deliver it “at no or low cost to Council”.

Both developers rejected council’s minimum terms in September, so talks never progressed.

Councillor Efi Carr put written questions to council before Monday night’s meeting, and the answers, published with the meeting papers on 9 November, revealed where the money went.

About $269,332 went on outside advisers including property firm Savills and lawyers Clayton Utz, plus about $8,350 in staff time.

Whatever happens next, draft council rules say a future plaza must mean no net loss of public parking, with the existing spaces moved underground and at least 64 public car spaces, five disability spaces and 11 motorcycle spaces.

Shop owners around the car park, including Blue and White Dry Cleaners, warned in 2023 that Coles’ design would significantly impact their trade, Mosman Collective reported at the time.

Coles is pressing on with its own seven and eight-storey building at 41-53 Grosvenor Street, with about 78 apartments over a new supermarket and 265 car spaces, after the NSW Government cleared the rezoning for public exhibition on 23 October.

In a letter dated 22 June, Coles told council the planning agreement that once promised the plaza and the underground car park was “no longer being proposed”.

Arkadia, owned by the Karedis family, wants towers of up to 12 storeys on the site of The Grove and Theo’s Arcade on Military Road, a plan council refused in September 2025 before the Sydney North Planning Panel backed it in February.

On Monday night councillors demanded Coles make a fresh offer and agreed to tell the Department of Planning that any approval should be tied to delivering the plaza.

Neutral Bay residents will get their say when the Coles plan goes on exhibition, with councillors agreeing to keep submissions open until at least 15 February 2027 so the consultation is not lost over Christmas, the Sun reported.

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