This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
PLANS for Google’s potential Australian headquarters have been shut down by the New South Wales government, which rejected Mirvac’s unsolicited proposal for a major commercial and cultural precinct development in Sydney’s Eveleigh that would be anchored by the global tech giant.
Transport for NSW owns the site, next to the carriage works on old rail years near Redfern in Sydney’s inner south, and the government rejected Mirvac’s proposal on the grounds that it preferred the site to be developed via a competitive open process.
NSW guidelines also stipulate that unsolicited proposals meet a “uniqueness test”, which determines a particular value for money and synergy with government objectives.
Mirvac’s plans could have created up to 19,000 jobs and included retail, office, residential and arts and culture spaces, an upgrade of Redfern station and integrated mixed use development around it, and public space.
In April last year, Google backed out of plans to take up the revitalised White Bay power station in the inner-western suburb of Rozelle for its HQ, citing a lack of public transport upgrades provided by the state government.
White Bay is part of a 95-hectare urban renewal project announced by former Premier Mike Baird in 2015 that had designs on creating Silicon Valley-style tech hub. Google’s decision largely scuppered those, and a key Glebe Island component of the area is now slated for a 13,000 sqm storage and distribution facility of bulk construction materials.
Australian Property Journal
