Parramatta. Asking price of $27 million

A two-storey office building, at 10 Cowper Street, is for sale, through Jones Lang LaSalle, with the asking price of $27 million. Tenants include Woolworths, Mirvac, Australian Red Cross, Glanville Architects and Focus Business Centres, plus an on-site café. The average office rental is $329 per square metres gross. Basement security parking is for 214 vehicles. The current FSR is approximately 2.2:1, with a maximum allowable of 6:1.

Parramatta. Feeding Sydney project underway

A land use survey of the Sydney basin is underway in the Parramatta-based UWS Urban Research Centre’s Feeding Sydney project., which is concerned about the future of produce production in the basin. An earlier study by Associate Professor, Frances Parker, pointed out that 40 per cent of Sydney's 2000 market gardens were in designated growth areas. She said the industry, which employed 12,000 people, was worth over $1 billion annually and produced 100 per cent of Asian greens, 91 per cent of spring onions and shallots, 90 per cent of Sydney’s perishable vegetables, 80 per cent of its mushrooms and 70 per cent of fresh tomatoes. The centre is a joint sponsor of the Sydney Food fairness Alliance’s Food Summit, in October.

Region. Merger of pharmaceutical firms

The proposed mergers of pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Wyeth, and Merck with Schering-Plough, will impact on the $18 billion Australian industry, with job losses in duplicated sales forces and regulatory affairs teams, and through the rationalisation of R&D and manufacturing plants, according to the Weekend Australian Financial Review. Pfizer Australia is based at West Ryde, Wyeth is at Norwest Business Park, Merck Sharp & Dohme (Australia) is at South Granville and Schering-Plough is at Baulkham Hills.

Richmond. RAAF base possible airport site

With Bankstown Airport and Badgerys Creek off the list as possible sites for Sydney’s second airport, the RAAF base, at Richmond, was firming as the preferred site, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. The paper said the State Government’s initial preference was for the Williamtown RAAF base, at Newcastle. Earlier, Qantas urged the Federal Government to open air force bases to more civilian traffic. Federal Transport Minister, Anthony Albanese, has said a second airport would be built outside the Sydney basin. The Government would detail in a white paper, expected late this year, the process by which it would determine a second airport for Sydney.

Blacktown. Primo buys Hans business

Primo Smallgoods, at Chullora, has agreed to buy the failed Japanese-owned Hans Continental Smallgoods business but not the Blacktown plant. More than 400 Hans workers have lost their jobs after the meat processing company, Japanese Tobacco, decided to sell the business. Primo Smallgoods was founded in 1985, at Homebush, and moved to a larger manufacturing facility, at Chullora, in 1989. The company is the largest producer of ham, bacon and smallgoods in Australia

Minto. Freight company buys property

The privately-owned NSW Freightlines, transport and distribution company, an Ingleburn, has bought an industrial office warehouse, of 8095 square metres, at Minto, for $5.56 million. The 14,200-square-metre site is close to the M5/M4 motorways and about 40 kilometres from Port Botany.