After four years pushing its plans for apartments, offices and shops in Braddon, the Raiders have abandoned the design and gone back to the drawing board.
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The Raiders had planned 156 apartments and other developments on Donaldson and Torres Street, and overlooking the rugby league park.
After fighting appeals from a community group, it finally won planning approval this year for the $80 million project, and had planned to begin work.
But chief executive Simon Hawkins said that in the intervening four years the market had changed and the proposal no longer stacked up.
"A fair bit's changed in four years. We re-did the maths, which came up with different numbers than the beginning of the process," he said. " And it seemed prudent, despite all the hard work, it seemed prudent to do it again."
The club had already spent "hundreds of thousands" of dollars.
The club holds an information evening on its new approach on Thursday evening at the Ainslie Arts Centre, and Mr Hawkins said it hoped to lodge a new development application to start the process again before the end of the year.
If it goes through more smoothly than last time, the club could be building next year.
Mr Hawkins said the new proposal was in its infancy, but would see a shift from apartments to townhouses, with less retail and office space. The club has appointed new architects Marchese Partners and Nathan Judd.
The club now plans about 94 apartments and 48 townhouses.
The rugby league club commissioned Spacelab to design a masterplan incorporating the adjacent Northbourne Oval, and Spacelab associate director Geoff Bunnett said he had aimed for a close connection to the public space and a development that reflected the heritage location.
Urban planner Giselle Ravarian said the design would re-establish the garden city principles.
"During the last decade there has been an oversupply of apartments in Canberra which don't match with our garden city image or the title of being the top family-friendly city in Australia," Ms Ravarian said.
The narrow terrace-style homes will allow residents to have their own backyard and private entrance.
"Over the past five years Braddon has really become a focus from a residential perspective," Mr Burnett said. "The demographics have really changed a lot."
The website section30braddon.com.au says development would happen across three separate sites – a mix of two, three and four-bedroom terraces over four levels on one site; a 22-28 metre tall apartment block on another; and a 28 metre tall apartment block on the third.
The previous project was locked up in planning for years, but approved in February. The North Canberra Community Council appealed but dropped its appeal in March, finally paving the way.
Mr Hawkins said the decision to start again was an economic one. A number of apartment buildings had come online recently with more to come. There was also considerable retail space on the market. As a result, apartment numbers, retail and office space would be reduced. The club was aiming for a "pretty prestigious type of townhouse" on the site.
As to the likelihood of planning delays with the new proposal, he said. "The nature of townhouses and the smaller mass of the buildings will probably make it more appealing, I would imagine, to people who are interested in it, so I imagine they would be happy with the new version."
