Region. Shopping centres for sale

Woolworths will sell and lease back the Carnes Hill Marketplace, at Horningsea Park, in south-west Sydney, and the West Ryde Marketplace, as two of the 30-plus centres to be offloaded in a $900 million-plus portfolio, after unsuccessfully sounding out potential investors in the portfolio. The retailer hopes to sell the portfolio in one line. Woolworths sold its head office, at Norwest, in 2004, and 11 distribution centres, in 2006, to a consortium led by Lend Lease for $846 million. The retailer owns more than 1000 properties nationally and last year sold about $100 million of centres and service stations.

Region. UWS hosts business chamber

The University of Western Sydney hosted local businesses in the Cumberland region at the UWS Blacktown/Mt Druitt Clinical School through an initiative of Cumberland Business Chamber to encourage local businesses to meet regularly and get comfortable amongst other local business people and support each other. Dr Ingrid Schraner, from the school of economics and finance, said UWS was heavily committed to supporting local businesses in the region. The Cumberland Business Chamber covers the Fairfield, Holroyd and Blacktown local government areas.

Parramatta. Sydney Water wins award

Sydney Water’s new operational facility, at Potts Hill, has won an Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM) award. “The new facilities at Potts Hill comprise a two-storey campus-style office, a maintenance depot and warehouse storage for about 450 field-based staff, and has been one of our more significant accommodation improvement projects,” said Sydney Water MD, Kerry Schott. “Sydney Water’s work on the Potts Hill project was supported by our project partners including Brookfield Multiplex, Bates Smart Architects, Alan Smith Consulting and Landcom.” The project would now go forward in its respective category for the National AIPM Awards.

Parramatta. Auction of DA-approved site

Northgate, a mixed-use part 7 and part 13-storey development site of approximately 3000 square metres, approved by Parramatta City Council, at 459-463 Church Street, in the northern section of the CBD, will be auctioned on October 7. The approval is for 94 units, approximately 2288 square metres of retail space and four levels of basement parking for 186 vehicles in a building, on the corner of Church and Albert streets. The applicant, Youma Constructions No 2 Pty Ltd, has sought provision for an additional 11 units and 15 parking spaces.

Rydalmere. Office-warehouse leased

Medichoice Pty Ltd has leased 1635 square metres of office-warehouse space, in Brodie Street, Rydalmere, from Goodman Group, at $120 a square metre for five years, through GIS Property.

Region. Asian interest in shopping centres

Scott Gray-Speneer, executive MD, of CBRE, said several local and offshore Asian investors actively competed for the Cecil Hills Shopping Village, which sold for $10.8 million. “We are experiencing particularly high demand from high-net-worth individuals and private Asian syndicates for sub $30 million assets located in Western Sydney,” he said. The next test of the market would be CBRE’s coming sale of the Cabramatta City Centre, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. CBRE’s Harry Bui said Asian private investors had traditionally dominated the Cabramatta market, with the John Street retail strip a “particularly sought-after destination for property investors”.

North Ryde. Uni's debut on bond market

Universities are looking at the capital markets with renewed interest after Macquarie University’s successful completion of a $250 million, 10-year fixed rate bond deal, according to The Australian Financial Review. Macquarie’s debut on the bond markets, part of a $450 million refinancing, will fund existing facilities and fund commercial developments, including the Macquarie University Hospital and the construction of Cochlear’s ($130 million) global headquarters at its campus, the paper said.