Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The light rail and metro might be the most obvious changes to the Sydney CBD over recent years, but the flows of commerce and technology have reshaped the city just as much. The City of Sydney tracks the number of businesses in the CBD in a survey every five years, which shows both how much the city has changed in the last decade and what has stayed the same. Take the transport industry. As taxis' dominance has waned in the face of ridesharing apps led by Uber, so too has the physical infrastructure that once supported cab drivers in the city. On Foveaux Street in Surry Hills, the Legion Cab base at number 81 has been transformed into luxury apartments after the taxi company sold up in 2013 and moved its headquarters to the cheaper suburb of Wolli Creek. In 2007, there were 354 transport and logistics businesses in the CBD. A decade later, there were only 104, with about a third having left the city. That is the second biggest fall behind manufacturing, which dropped 40 per cent to just 29 businesses across the same period.


Meanwhile, finance and professional services businesses have boomed. What was once a naval yard at Barangaroo is now home to thousands of professionals working for companies including auditing and consulting firm PwC. That mirrors trends across the city, where the sector has seen a net increase of more than 700 businesses over the last decade. Despite the huge influence technology has had on other sectors in the city, there has not been a boom in the number of technology firms in the CBD. The number of tech firms dropped between 2007 and 2012 before recovering in the five years to 2017. But the tech sector’s result still far outstrips the number of bank branches, which are fast becoming an endangered species as the internet makes cash increasingly redundant. The City of Sydney does not track the number of bank branches as a specific category, but a number of banks have said they are cutting staff and branches.


In the six months to June this year, Westpac closed 40 branches and reduced its full-time staff count by 788. NAB is part-way through a plan to cut 6000 jobs. Where branches remain, their appearance has changed. Impressive, dour branches designed to show customers the bank could be trusted with their money have been replaced by steel and glass structures that emphasise technology. On George Street, the former grand Commercial Bank of Sydney branch is now the Sydney flagship of luxury retailer Burberry. Nearby in Martin Place, the 1916 Commonwealth Bank building – immortalised in the Australian consciousness when it served as the model for the bank’s money box – hosts a COS outlet, the upmarket clothing store owned by H&M. And up the street, the former General Post Office is now a luxury hotel.


There are 76 more tourism, cultural and leisure businesses across the CBD than there were in 2007 but not all are hotels. That sector has been rocked by the growth of Airbnb, which had about 1000 properties for rent in the CBD alone last year according to an analysis of scraped data by The Sydney Morning Herald. As in the tech sector, retail store numbers have been roughly flat across the last decade as the industry battles the growth of online shopping. There were 1853 retail businesses in the CBD in 2007 and 1811 a decade later — a difference of just 2 per cent despite the number of people working in the CBD growing much more quickly. The iconic Sharpie’s golf shop on Elizabeth Street is one victim of that challenging retail environment. It was bought by professional golfer Lindsay Sharp in the 1980s. He made the site famous with a neon sign that is now in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. But in 2007 the shop, then under new ownership, closed and sat empty for a decade.

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