Blacktown.Pathways for disadvantaged

Blacktown. Pathways for disadvantaged.




Marist Youth Care’s new Skills Development Centre, in Blacktown, is providing pathways for young disadvantaged people into employment by providing them with work ready skills. The program has already placed its first intake of 12 teenagers, between the ages of 16 and 19 in general construction, sheet metal and maintenance roles. Marist Youth Care has been in negotiations with employers in the mining and engineering industries which have committed to taking on future graduates

Parramatta. City a priime target

Ageing unit blocks in the inner west and Parramatta will become prime targets for redevelopers if the state government’s proposed overhaul of strata laws proceeds. Parramatta city centre would be hight on the agenda, given it has been under development pressure for years due to the projected growth in the area, according to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Silverwater. Payless into administration

Silverwater. Payless into administration




Payless Shoes, at Silverwater, Australia’s largest independent shoe retailer, has been placed in voluntary administration. Deloitte Reconstruction Services said the 227 Payless stores would continue to trade while an urgent assessment of the company’s financial position was undertaken, and a sale of the business was expedited soon.

Parramatta. General manager sought

The Parramatta National Rugby League Club has advertised for a general manage of football operations to further lead and develop football operations.

North Ryde. $60 million data centre opened

Intellicentre 2 is Macquarie Telecom's new $60 million state-of-the-art, 20,000-square-metre purpose-built data centre located in North Ryde, has been officially opened. The company’s CEO, David Tudehope, said the centre could save businesses as much as 70 per cent of the costs of running a data centre within their own premises. The centre, in Macquarie Park, has received cloud and hosting services certification.

Parramatta. Relocate bureaucrats

Former government bureaucrat, Bob Meyer, who drafted the first forward-looking for Parramatta in the 1970s, believes Western Sydney is due for a revamp. Mr Meyer, now the director of planning, at Cox Richardson Architects, argues that the entire NSW bureaucracy should be relocated to Parramatta. The administrative centre of California is not San Francisco or Los Angeles; it’s Sacramento. The same with New York. It’s not Manhattan, it’s Albany. It can be done,” he said the Sunday Telegraph.

North Ryde. Deal with government

Macquarie University has struck a deal with the federal government to proceed with a postgraduate research degree structure aligned to global norms. From next year, Macquarie will offer a two-year master of research as the main pathway into a PhD and will enrol 200 bachelor-degree graduates in the master’s degree, which will lead to a three-year PhD, according to The Australian Financial Review. Macquarie has committed $1.6 million on scholarships for students who enrol in the first year of the pathway program in 2013.

Sydney Olympic Park

Fund manager, Folkestone, raised $16.46 million in equity to fund the acquisition of a five storey office property, at 7 Murray Rose Avenue. International electronics and systems group, Thales Australia, has pre-committed to lease the 5973-square-metre property for 10 years.