This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
General Property Trust has received a development approval for its development site located at 17-23 Talavera Road in the Macquarie Park commercial precinct in Sydney.
GPT plans to develop a $90 million 18,500 sqm campus style building on the site with 400 car spaces, subject to an appropriate level of pre-commitment.
GPT bought the 20,000 sqm site from Valad, which secured the property under option from Hewlett Packard in August 2004.
GPT’s industrial and business park portfolio manager Victor Georos said the acquisition promotes GPT’s aim of building a diversified portfolio with access to the major industrial and business park markets.
"We already have a significant presence in the Homebush Bay market & have been looking for an appropriate acquisition to give the Group an exposure to the Macquarie Park market, considered one of the premium business park markets in Australia due to its location & amenity, as demonstrated by strong current tenant demand & relatively low prime grade vacancy.
"This is a great project for GPT which builds on our success with the development of the Quad at Homebush Bay and gives us the ability to offer prospective tenants a choice between two premium Business Park locations in Sydney.” he added.
“Valad identified opportunity to add value to the property which was an underdeveloped asset with a strategy to on-sell as soon as development consent was received,” Valad’s chief of operations Darryl Kite said.
The property comprises approximately 2 ha of land which was originally zoned industrial Special – University (now 3f Business Special (research/Development).
The site included a high-tech 3,647 sqm building with 170 car spaces.
“The provisions for the property in this plan created some significant planning challenges with a large proportion of the property given over to open and green space.
“Significant design and planning effort was required to develop a concept that was both acceptable to the market and the local and planning authorities,” Kite concluded.
On completion of this development, GPT’s industrial and business park portfolio will have a value of over $600 million with significant development potential over the medium term.
By Adam Parsons
