Macquarie Park set for $750m 'community business district' next door to train station
A site at the entrance of Macquarie Park’s newly upgraded train station has been earmarked for a four-tower mixed-use office and retail project, as the suburb prepares to be transformed by new metro rail services beginning in May.
A joint venture between Frasers Property Australia and Winten Property Group, the $750 million project will redevelop a 15,620-square-metre site into four buildings yielding more than 83,000 square metres of gross lettable area, with the first tower at 16 storeys and the rest reaching eight levels.
About 74,000 square metres is earmarked for commercial offices, and retail will take up 5700 square metres, including a proposed childcare centre and gym. More than 2200 square metres of space will be dedicated to a central park, which will include public art.
The commercial component will include an outdoor plaza, retail laneway as well as onsite health and wellbeing facilities.
The proposed project is next to the new metro station. Image: Frasers
Floor plates in the A-grade office building will range from 1500 to more than 2150 square metres, and spaces will be interconnected by stairs.
Designed by architects Bates Smart, the first tower, MQX 1, will feature winter gardens with voids to create breakout spaces, while the other buildings will have terraces and workspaces on the rooftop, as well as balconies overlooking the park.
More than 7000 employees are expected to fill the development when it is completed.
The project, which is being labelled as a “community business district”, will be the first of its kind in Australia, the developers say.
“Placemaking is at the core of the community business district concept,” said Reini Otter, Frasers Property’s executive general manager for commercial and industrial.
He added that the urban and commercial environment, where there is a focus on social interaction and collaboration, is “unlike anything that has existed in Macquarie Park before”.
“Macquarie Exchange will activate the metro precinct, setting a new precedent for work environments outside the CBD,” Mr Otter said.
“With its scale, location and diversity, Macquarie Exchange has the ability to create a bustling mixed-use community, offering a network of spaces with a variety of experiences and activity for local businesses and the community.”
The first stage of the project is due to be completed in 2022. Image: Frasers
Stuart Vaughan, development director at Winten Property Group, said Macquarie Park had become a metropolitan Sydney hub thanks to the gentrification and infrastructure upgrades happening in the area.
“It made commercial sense to position Macquarie Exchange at the entrance to the metro station, which is also the gateway to Macquarie Park’s commercial precincts,” he said.
“The area is already a driver of economic growth and employment in NSW and state infrastructure such as the metro upgrade.”
Macquarie Park’s office vacancy rate tightened from 5.4 per cent to 4.8 per cent in the six months to January 2019 – a historic low for this market, Property Council of Australia data shows.
Limited office development is happening in Macquarie Park, with no new space due to come online in 2019.
The proposed development will have a mix of shops and offices. Image: Frasers
The only new development currently under construction in the suburb is a 35,000-square-metre project Building C, 45 Waterloo Road, being developed by John Holland. The Department of Transport has pre-committed about 70 per cent of the project.
The Macquarie Exchange announcement comes as the new Sydney Northwest Metro, of which Macquarie Park is a part of, is due to begin operations in May.
Macquarie Park was one of five existing train stations which were upgraded to metro standards to become part of the Sydney Metro network. The station closed for about seven months for the upgrades, which included platform screen doors and is due to reopen when the metro services start running.
Development approval for Macquarie Exchange is expected to come through in August, while the first stage is due to be completed in the first quarter of 2022.
GJS Property’s Jason Wright and Chris Bailey along with JLL’s Denys Bizinger and Francesco Princi are handling the leasing campaign.
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