John Holland's first Macquarie Square building on track for completion
John Holland has unveiled the first glimpses of its soon to be completed new office precinct, the $1 billion Macquarie Square in Sydney’s north, with the building soon to hit the market with a price guide of more than $300 million.
The Chinese-backed construction company is set to complete the first stage of the project in March next year, a 25,000-square-metre office building called the Glasshouse, mostly pre-leased to Transport for NSW.
Net annual rents in the building were pitched at around $450 to $500 a square metre, comparable to other office rents in the area, sources say.
The sale campaign for the building will start in July, the company says.
Also known as Building C, the Glasshouse is the first of five buildings to be completed across the 117,071-square-metre project located at a 3-hectare site on Waterloo Road in Macquarie Park. It bought the site in 2017 for around $90 million, as foreshadowed by The Australian Financial Review.
The five buildings will flank a new 7000-square-metre public park. The development itself will also feature retail, premium dining, bars, event spaces and a gym for future workers, as Macquarie Park becomes the next big work-and-live suburb in Sydney, serviced by two metro train stations which have just opened.
Chief executive Joe Barr says Macquarie Square marks a milestone in the company’s history as an integrated property and infrastructure company.
The 70-year-old Australian icon transitioned from being a construction company to becoming a property and urban renewal project developer around 2016, following its acquisition by Chinese infrastructure and engineering behemoth CCCC International Holding in 2015.
“We are the owner, developer and builder of this iconic new precinct, and we are excited to show off this modern marketplace for Sydney,” Mr Barr said.
The project launch follows John Holland’s sale of its investment in the office tower at 275 George Street in the Sydney CBD to Japan’s Daibiru Corporation for about $240 million last year.
