Up to 66 retailers set to land across Sydney Northwest Metro

Up to six spots will be leased at each station, and Hills Showground Station will headline the network with the most retail space.

The 11 stations where retail space will be leased are Cudgegong Road, Rouse Hill, Kellyville, Bella Vista, Norwest, Hills Showground, Castle Hill, Cherrybrook, Macquarie University, Macquarie Park and North Ryde.

Construction will also include 4000 commuter car parking spaces across the network.

Savills director Ben Nastasi, who is sourcing and delivering the retail components on behalf of Northwest Rapid Transit, said interest in the leases has been strong from “a mixed bag” of larger chains and smaller operations, despite the campaign not officially starting until April 9.

“It’s the first time in a long time there’s been a new train station so it’s sparked a lot of interest, especially in that pocket of Sydney which has been screaming out for a new service of this nature,” he said.

Rents will be “absolutely comparable” with that of other retail in the surrounding area.

“I don’t think the idea is to smash people on rents. They’ve (the tenants) got to be viable businesses,” Mr Nastasi said.

While the food-and-beverage category is hot in the retail market, the leasing agent said it is not the “number one priority” for the Northwest Metro network.

“There’s only a certain bit of the pie, and if you keep chopping up that pie, it’s not good for anyone,” he said, adding that they were not precluding anything.

“What we want to do is identify gaps in the marketplace for the long-term and have stuff that’s living and breathing working communities,” he said.

The selection would be “station specific” and judged “from use to use” while considering the demographics of the people living and working in the location.

“For example, in areas where there’s a lot of paraprofessionals, say Kellyville, there might be an opportunity to put a drycleaner there, so that any professional people who want to drop off shirts or pants, catch the train to work and when they come home in the evening, they can pick it up,” Mr Natasi said.

“Conversely, in other areas, Cudgegong Road for example may not necessarily have the need for a drycleaning.”

He stressed that Northwest Rapid Transit is opening the tenancy mix to retailers beyond the standard offerings.

“It might be someone that’s got some really good idea that would work in an area (along the metro line) – we can help maybe get that through.”

Northwest Rapid Transit is a consortium comprising Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation, Australian companies John Holland Group, UGL Rail Services, CPB Contractors and Plenary Group.

The $8.3-billion Northwest Metro project is the first stage of the wider Sydney Metro, which will be Australia’s first fully automated railway.

The new trains will start running in the first half of 2019.