3CBDs green program goes national

The program previously known as the 3CBDs Greenhouse Initiative, established in 2005 involving the City of Sydney, North Sydney Council, Parramatta City Council and the NSW Department of Climate Change, is going national to coincide with World Environment Day. The initiative is now known as the CitySwitch Green Office works with tenants to improve office energy efficiency. To date, 56 high profile organisations have committed to the program. Colliers International, which is joining the national scheme, received a five-star rating for its Parramatta office in October last year. Council will continue to encourage local businesses and residents to reduce their emissions.

Balanced budget for council

Parramatta City Council’s draft 2008-09 Management Plan contains a balanced budget which delivers a project budget of $30 million and a services budget if $121 million. Council said to achieve this it sought further productivity savings of $1,050,000 from its services and fleet budgets. Council will reduce expenditure of the Lord Mayor's Christmas Party by $22,000 and catering for staff by $10,000.

UWS students search for answers in Fairfield

Four teams of third year economics students from UWS Parramatta have completed consultancy projects with Fairfield City Council that address current economic issues the council faces in its economic development work. Students in the Economics and Finance Engagement Project investigated the poverty trap, local responses to manufacturing industry decline, opportunities for affordable housing and shared equity housing in Fairfield and looking at what council could learn from economic development strategies used in other communities.

$1 billion capital investment in Parramatta

A back-of-the envelope exercise indicates that the total amount of capital invested in major infrastructure, retail and public and private sector office projects, in the CBD, and residential towers on the CBD fringe, was in the order of $1 billion. Council is unable to provide a figure, as “investors do not ask for that type of information”, a council spokesperson said. “Council concentrates its energy on compiling other more important statistics that illustrate levels of investment in Parramatta. For example, employment growth, commercial vacancy rates and new companies moving to the area, to name just a few,” Also, capital invested in new projects in the city’s industrial sector would total many hundreds of millions of dollars, in boosting the overall attraction of the Parramatta LGA to investors.

Application approved

A V Jennings has had its application approved for the construction of 32 dwellings, in the first and second stage, of its residential project at the former Eastwood Brickworks. The estimated cost of the project is $9.3 million. Absolute Waterfront Apartments has had its application approved for a change of use of space from commercial purposes to accommodate professional offices, at 101a-105/22 Charles Street, in the Parramatta CBD.

Penrith business park sold for $6.5 million

A Sydney investor, Mark Betar, paid $6.5 million for the newly developed Eclipse Business Park, in Penrith, which has a building area of 7559 square metres comprising 28 strata industrial units, incorporating both warehouse and office space. The property was put on sale on behalf of a finance company, The Australian Financial Review reported.

Government charges up to 35 per cent of land cost

Residential land in Sydney’s growth areas in the northwest and southwest top the list of the 10 most costly areas to build, according to an Urbis/HD survey. Federal, state and local government charges and taxes accounted for 34.8 per cent ($198,670) of the cost of a block in the northwest ($57,0240) and 30.6 per cent ($166,481) of a block in the southwest ($544,115). The Australian reported that industry sources said AV Jennings and Australand had pulled out of projects in the southwest because the figures did not stack up.

Fourth bidder for Dairy Farmers

Victoria-based Warrnambool Cheese and Butter has joined three other publicly-named bidders for the $900 million auction of Dairy Farmers co-operative, headquartered at Sydney Olympic Park, namely, National Foods, New Zealand-based Fonterra and Parmalat/Murray Goulburn. Canadian and Singaporean companies are said to be interested.