Save Our City Shops
The soul of Sydney is not for demolition.
The Town Hall Square project will wipe out iconic architecture and dozens of local businesses to create a giant, expensive slab of pavement.
The City of Sydney expects us to go quietly. They expect us to accept the destruction of our shops and our heritage as “inevitable”. They are wrong.
Your signature on our petition is the only thing standing between bulldozers and our history.
THE BUSINESSES
Council owns the bricks.
They don’t own the three generations of sweat that built them.
80 years ago, my grandfather didn't start his jewellery business with a silver spoon; he started it with a workbench and a belief that hard work meant something.
Long before the world knew us for the fire of the Australian Opal, our family was forged in the clarity of the Diamond trade. Back then, Park House was Sydney’s first "vertical mall" a beehive of shoemakers, tailors, and craftsmen.
My family helped young couples, back from the front lines and re-united after war, find the precious stones that would start their family histories.
We didn’t just sell jewellery; we helped build the foundations of Sydney’s families.
- Jason Blaiklock, local business owner
Let’s be clear:
We are not asking Council to pause or defer this.
We are calling for the Town Hall Square project to be cancelled.
THE BETRAYAL
The Mayor is ignoring Council’s own stop sign.
Council were briefed by their property specialists:
The construction of a future Town Hall Square will require a large financial commitment of well over $200 million.The capital costs would be greater than any recent undertaking of the City, and will reduce our future operating income from the site.
The City is yet to acquire all the properties required for the future square.
The City will need to continue to optimise its commercial property portfolio in order to set aside funds towards the cost of construction, while ensuring our long-term financial sustainability.
For these reasons it is recommended that construction of the future Town Hall Square not commence any earlier than 2035.
The Town Hall Square project is the City’s latest obsession.
A plan to tear down a thriving block of the CBD just to satisfy a "legacy" itch towards the end of the mayor’s career.
To make this project happen, they want to take the wrecking ball to Park House and the Woolworths building to clear space, wiping out iconic architecture and dozens of local businesses.
Council has floated a $200+ million price tag, but the true cost could approach $1 billion.
That’s because the true cost includes:
lost rental income (past and future)
losses created by demolition clauses compounded by Council not maintaining buildings
the value of air space
foregone redevelopment potential
the broader opportunity cost of sterilising a productive CBD site.
The Mayor calls it a Grand Gateway.
The reality?
We’re trading functional, heritage buildings and active shopfronts for a giant, expensive slab of pavement for protests.
The Lord Mayor has also suggested this is about creating space for protestors — but why should ratepayers bankroll the demolition of functioning shops and services to create yet another protest space in the CBD?
At a time of economic uncertainty when most governments are talking about fiscal constraint, the City of Sydney want to spend big on an unnecessary project that almost no-one wants.
Look at the sunken concrete pit next to the Town Hall steps today.
It’s a drafty, depressing void where the only vibrant community is a flock of pigeons scavenging for scraps.
If the Mayor gets her way, we aren’t getting a world-class plaza; we’ll just be getting a wasteland, with lost businesses, lost services and lost employment.
Before the bulldozers can move in, there’s a story the City of Sydney is trying to bury.
It’s a story of experts being ignored, financial warnings being silenced, and a sudden, desperate rush to build a mayoral "legacy" at any cost.
READ MORE»
THE COMMUNITY
It’s not just one shop.
It’s our neighbourhood.
The City of Sydney Council wants you to think this is a simple, sensible project in the public interest. They are wrong.
This is the calculated destruction of a well-established and dedicated community of businesses, shoppers and employees.
The Lord Mayor’s office claims the proposed square is for "the people." But when we locals talk to the people who live, work, and pay rates here, the message is unanimous.
They want shops, services and jobs, not an over-priced, unjustified public space, with years of maintenance to follow.
No-one we speak to can say that they were properly consulted about this.
When you destroy a block, you don't just lose a building; you lose a network of families, expertise, and decades of trust.
Residents and workers lose shops and services. Jason and Australian Opal Cutters are standing at the centre, but they aren’t standing alone.
The people who live, work and shop here have spoken. Is anyone at Town Hall listening?
The Lord Mayor claims this square is a gift to the citizens of Sydney. But we asked the people who actually live, work, and pay rates in this city.
Their message is a thunderous ‘NO!’
And when the justification shifts to “space for protestors”, the question is simple: why do we need more protest space in the city — especially at the expense of jobs, shops, services, and a thriving CBD block?
Below are the voices of your neighbours, voices of reason—residents who see through the $200+ million smoke and mirrors. This isn't just about a building; it’s about a Council that has lost touch with the modern realities of Sydney.
Loss of convenience shopping
Loss of local businesses
Insufficient consultation
Loss of local jobs
Higher priorities
No genuine justification
Huge financial cost
No need.
Will likely increase rates and fees
Will attract and increase social problems
Now Council wants to close the only proper supermarket in the whole CBD, the Big W homewares store, and surrounding businesses.
It shows how out of touch the council is with the lives and needs of ordinary citizens.
- Helen, Sydney resident
The City of Sydney isn’t a blank slate.
Sydney needs to be a liveable place, where residents still matter and locals have easy access to their daily needs, says local resident and ratepayer, Helen.
Will you stand with us?
If the Lord Mayor’s 2028 timeline proceeds, seven historic buildings including the iconic Park House and the Coronation Hotel will be reduced to rubble.
Your local Woolworths and Big W will be gone.
This act of state-sanctioned vandalism will wipe out over 800 local jobs in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, stripping the CBD of essential grocery and retail amenities that thousands of residents rely on daily.
We are being asked to sacrifice nearly 80 years of family heritage and a thriving local ecosystem for a $200+ million “white elephant” that the Council’s own experts warn will be a financial disaster. We cannot let them trade our history for a windswept, neglected, unwanted plaza.
The City of Sydney expects us to go quietly. They expect us to accept the destruction of our heritage as "inevitable." They are wrong. Every signature on our petition, every shared story, and every ratepayer who speaks up is a brick in the wall protecting our city’s soul.
We are calling on councillors to cancel the Town Hall Square project — not delay it, not re-scope it, not defer it — cancel it.
Don't let them erase 1947 to build a vanity project in 2027.
We are presenting this mandate to the City of Sydney Councillors who vote on our fate and the NSW Heritage Trust to prove that Sydney says NO to the Mayor’s rushed legacy.
Your support stands between the bulldozers and our history and your shops.