Vertical $50m warehouse making its mark
Renders of the property development group, Potter George's planned $50 million vertical industrial site at Revesby in Sydney's south. Photo: Supplied

Vertical $50m warehouse making its mark

Property development group Potter George has launched one of the first few multi-level industrial precincts in Sydney, as space tightens in the city for storage and industrial services.

The $50 million development, currently being constructed and due for completion in 2021, is set on 8,433 square metres of land in Revesby, in Sydney’s south.

Called The Mavis Quad, the development will deliver 44 industrial and 90 storage units from 18 square metres to 320 square metres, over three floors, and operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The units are now up for sale off the plan, through agents Gunning Commercial and Niemeyer.

Principal of Potter George, Phil George, said the group is following the example of overseas cities, which are facing a squeeze on residential and commercial land and require multi-level complexes to accommodate a wide of companies.

“Multi-level complexes like Mavis Quad will become the norm in these sorts of precincts in future as they only require well-designed ramps for access to the higher floors and create a much smaller footprint,” Mr George said.

Due to the scarcity of space and the cost of the land, more vertical warehouses are being reviewed by a number of developers, such as Goodman Group.

Goodman’s chief executive Greg Goodman has said South Sydney and Port Melbourne are the areas ear-marked for more development, which will be mostly vertical warehouses given the lack of land.

S&P Australia’s latest report on the sector says the scarcity and rising costs of land, particularly in Sydney, would push up rents to cover the cost of construction.

“For the fast-moving consumer goods sector and retail supply chain, these higher costs will have to be passed onto consumers,” the report says.

“Stiff competition for land and more bespoke tenant requirement mean rents have to justify the capital spending.”

The competition for land that would have been zoned industrial is coming from residential, higher intensity industrial, and data centre uses. Indeed, Australian house price growth has historically outpaced nominal GDP since 1986.

Mr George said it is expected that while its economic growth is slowing, Sydney’s industrial and commercial property sectors are set for long-term, sustainable growth with the completion of major infrastructure projects such as the WestConnex and Badgerys Creek Airport.

Land value growth in Sydney has grown at 14 per cent annually over the last five years, with the west and the outer south west areas growing at more than 10 per cent annually.

“Over the last year, 650,000 square metres of new industrial land in Sydney was completed, with 30 per cent concentrated in the outer west of Sydney and located near the major transport routes.”

Potter George is a private property group specialising in retail, industrial, residential and commercial developments, with its latest deal being the $19 million purchase of a development site, a 12.68-hectare parcel in Melbourne’s North West Suburb of Fraser Rise.

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