Facelift to make North Eveleigh a Cultural Hub

At least 150-200 apartments will be reserved for affordable housing and several historic buildings will be retained, to be used for a mixture of commercial and residential purposes. Mr Sartor said the $550 million revamp would also bring up to 3270 permanent jobs in cultural, commercial and retail roles.

"North Eveleigh is one of Sydney's most important urban renewal projects," Mr Sartor said. "We are working to transform surplus rail land into a vibrant cultural, residential and commercial hub."

Funds raised from selling off the land will be used to upgrade Redfern station and improve bicycle links between Redfern, Australian Technology Park and North Eveleigh.

The plan allows for significant changes by developers further down the track which would be decided at the "project application stage" according to the plan.

A university may possibly express interest in the floor space at North Eveleigh.

This would most likely be the University of Sydney, which is continuing its expansion into adjacent Darlington.

Geoff Turnbull from community group RED-Watch said the plan was vague about the final look and greenness of the site, and left the final development open to developer interpretation. Mr Turnbull criticised the traffic study compiled for the concept plan.

"We find the exclusion of the Lawson Street and Gibson Street intersection [Darlington] perplexing given that it's from these lights that traffic backing into Abercrombie Street originates," he said.