Page 42 - Tropic Magazine Issue 16

INDUSTRY • TOWN PLANNING

In Sync

PLAN AHEAD
Tropic sits down with Stuart
Ricketts from Urban Sync to
talk planning, development,
and getting results.

Words Gavin King
Stuart Ricketts is an animated and
energetic type of guy. And that’s
before you get him started on
planning and development issues and
his thoughts on the latest projects
and state of the economy in Cairns.
Despite having worked as a town
planner in the city since 2000, his
passion for the city and getting results
for his clients has only gathered pace
Riley by Crystalbrook Collection over nearly two decades in the game.
As one of the Tropical North’s busiest
and most respected town planning
firms, Stuart and his team at Urban
Sync are a unique blend of expert
consultants and trusted advisors.
It’s the latter term Stuart believes is
Urban Sync’s greatest strength.
“We don’t just hand over an approval
to a client, say ‘thank you very much
and good luck with that’ and walk
away,” he told Tropic. “We get involved
early and like to know the motivations
behind a project and we follow it all
the way through. We actually care that
the project goes ahead and gets built. I
think that’s why so many clients come
Botanica development back to us after the first projects we
work together on. Consultants can
fall into many different categories but
we like the category of being a trusted
advisor. It sets us apart and delivers a
better service for our clients.”

STARTING SYNCH
When Stuart first moved to Cairns
to work for the C&B Group, he was
providing professional advice to the
likes of CEC Group, Diocese of Cairns
and other local developers as the
Tropical North’s economy started to
boom and take flight. “It was a great
time for the city,” Stuart said, “and
I was exposed to a great variety of
projects and an enormous amount of
responsibility though I probably didn’t
know it at the time.”
A few years later, Stuart decided
Stuart Ricketts and Matt Ingram to start Urban Sync and launched
the firm in 2014. Born out of his

42 • Tropic • Issue 16