New position for developer of 25 Smith Street

Kate Brown, development manager, Grosvenor Australia Asia Pacific, who developed the $60 million office building at 25 Smith Street, in the Parramatta CBD, has been appointed to the newly created position of group director for environment and design She designed 25 Smith Stret to a four-star Green Star and a four-and-a-half Australian Building Greenhouse Rating. The building contains many sustainable feastures such as rainwater harvesting, solar efficient glazing and recycled materials.

$150 million office tower proposed

Joint ventue partners Grosvenor Australia and Leighton Properties plan to develop a $150 million, 14-storey, 22,500-square metre office tower, on the corner of Hassall and Station streets, opposite the Commercial Hotel and the Parramatta bus-rail interchange. Grosvenor Australia development manager, Anthony Lombardo, said in "The Australian Financial Review" that Parramatta was an attractive option for corporate and government tenants, with average prime rents now less that half those in the Sydney CBD.

CBD is 'primed for a real estate boom'

At the geopgraphic centre of Sydney's divided real estate market is Parramatta, a once-maligned regional hub that is attracting the eye of residential investors looking to capitalise on affordable housing prices and rising rents, according to "The Bulletin" magazine. Parramatta is spearheading the rise in the harbour city's middle-ring suburbs. A thriving commercial centre and the completion of Parramatta's transport hub upgrade last year have also underpinned investment in this culturally diverse region. Parramatta Lord Mayor, Paul Barber, says the boom in development would frimly establish Parramatta as an economic powerhouse and the central hub of Western Sydney.

One sold, one on the market

A 3-storey 800-square-metre (GLA) retail property at 300 Church Street, Parramatta, in the heart of the city's traditional retail strip, has been sold to a syndicate of local investors for $3 million. The building, with current income of $164,325 per annuam, was earlier passed in at auction for $2.92 million. The tenant, Cash Converters, has a lease until September 2001. The yield was just under 4.3 per cent. Another retail property of 300 square metres over two levels, at 259 Church Street, was passed in at auction for $1.56 million. The fully-leased building is now for sale at $1.7 million.