Honeysuckle is a near completed 50 hectare residential and commercial urban renewal

Urban renewal

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...

 redevelopment of former industrial land along Newcastle Harbour (Newcastle

Newcastle, New South Wales

The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...

, New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

, Australia).

History

Honeysuckle is the result of a public/private partnership, similar to urban renewal projects globally, that was the combination between the Honeysuckle Development Corporation and various private developers. The Honeysuckle Development Corporation, established in 1992, was the NSW State Government organisation responsible for the facilitation of Honeysuckle. In 2003, Honeysuckle Development Corporation merged with Regional Land Development Corporation to form the Hunter Development Corporation to take on additional economic development in Newcastle. Various private developers have contributed to Honeysuckle's mix of commercial and residential development.

Precincts

Honeysuckle has seven precincts:

• Carrington
• Cottage Creek
• Honeysuckle
• Hunter Street
• Linwood
• Marina
• Wickham

Residential development

Multistorey residential apartments with ground floor retail and restaurant/cafe space are located in the Honeysuckle Precinct and medium density townhouses occupy the Linwood Precinct. These are largely aimed at middle income earners looking for an inner-city lifestyle. Honeysuckle however has committed $25 million to community housing, and through Newmacq Community Housing, people on low to medium incomes who meet the criteria of Affordable Rental Program can access some rental properties in Honeysuckle.

Commercial development

Honeysuckle has sought to gentrify a once industrial area by attracting commercial development, particularly in the Cottage Creek Precinct, to Newcastle. Local water authority Hunter Water, local legal firm Sparke Helmore, and international consultancy Price Water House Coopers have established offices in Honeysuckle along Honeysuckle Drive. The Crowne Hotel occupies the Honeysuckle Precinct in the eastern extremity of Honeysuckle and the Ibis Hotel occupies the Hunter Street Precinct. A strip of restaurants and bars occupy the Honeysuckle Precinct, which has become known as The Boardwalk. In the Marina Precinct, the redeveloped Fish Co-Op is utilised by Hunter Fishers, while the Precinct also houses the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club, two seafood restaurants, and a fish and chip shop.

Success

Honeysuckle has made use of many of Newcastle's former disused and derelict harbour-front industrial buildings. Varied residential building types appeal to a variety of different people looking for inner city lifestyle - a recent trend among Australian cities.

Newcastle's Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services has increased from 1,217 in 1996 to 1,834 in 2006. The Honeysuckle precinct offers land available for major commercial firms. Price Water House Coopers has recently established an office in the Honeysuckle Precinct.

Honeysuckle has preserved some of the Heritage listed buildings that line Newcastle Harbour, particularly the former Railway work sheds that have been utilised for community-orientated events. Successful adaptive-reuse of one of these work sheds is now the University of Newcastle's gym, The Forum. Another in development is City Council's new Newcastle Museum scheduled to open in 2011.

Criticism

The Honeysuckle development utilised a top-down, modernist, rational model based on similar urban renewal

Urban renewal

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...

 projects worldwide, such as New York's Battery Park City, London’s Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf

Canary Wharf is a major business district located in London, United Kingdom. It is one of London's two main financial centres, alongside the traditional City of London, and contains many of the UK's tallest buildings, including the second-tallest , One Canada Square...

, and Melbourne’s Docklands. The commonality between these developments is that they focused on physical planning around city centres where new buildings, markets, and hotels attempt to 'revitalise' the city. This planning approach largely focuses on the technical expertise and does not allow for public participation in the decision making process. In this physical planning approach that aims at drawing middle income residents in an attempt to gentrify the area, economic flow-on effects to the city are assumed but rarely eventuate. For instance, Hunter Street, directly adjacent to the southern portion of Honeysuckle, is dotted with derelict buildings frequently inhabited by squatters. An informal squat is located directly across the road from the Hunter Street Precinct.

By aiming at Professional, Scientific, and Technical industries, the area's former industrial workers have to move further from the city in the pursuit of employment. Manufacturing represented 11.4% of the inner city’s labour force in 1996, while in 2006 this had decreased to 8.7%.

Restrictive zoning and high rent in Honeysuckle has also diminished the potential for a dynamic mix of people and businesses.