Dexus Names New Chief as Sydney Logistics Greenlit

Dexus is finishing a big year with a change at the top. 

Ross Du Vernet will take over from Darren Steinberg as chief executive of the ASX-listed investment trust from March 2024, the group has announced.

Du Vernet has been with Dexus for nearly 12 years, and is the company’s chief investment officer. 

“The board has spent much of 2023 planning for succession, which also included executing a global search, and is confident that alongside our highly regarded executive leadership team, Ross will succeed in leading Dexus through its next phase of growth,” Dexus chair Warwick Negus said.

At the same time, Dexus announced the launch of Velociti Industrial Estate, a super-prime industrial facility at Moorebank, in Sydney’s south-west.

The development at 12 Church Road, Moorebank, was greenlit by Liverpool City Council last week.

The project is co-owned by Dexus and Dexus Industria REIT. 

▲ Ross Du Vernet is the incoming chief executive at Dexus.

Velociti has a total gross leasable area (GLA) of 17,946sq m across seven warehouses ranging from 2000 to 3250 square metres.

Each of the warehouses will have mezzanine offices. 

“From the Moorebank site, distributors can access 93 per cent of Sydney’s population within 60 minutes,” Dexus Transactions and Development—Industrial head Chris Mackenzie said. 

Construction is expected to begin in early 2024.

While Dexus has been offloading Melbourne assets this year, it has also been acquiring in areas on the rise, including Perth with its $1.3-billion industrial buy at Jandakot Airport, and industrial completions proved to be a bright spot in its full year results.

Villawood industrial plan filed

Elsewhere in Sydney, Macada Orlani Property Group has submitted plans for a $42-million warehouse in the Canterbury-Bankstown suburb of Villawood. 

Two two-storey warehouses would be built at 1 Maple Avenue, with five tenancies between them, totalling 18,414sq m of gross floor area, under the scheme. 

The South District Plan puts the site in the Leightonfield Station precinct, one of the largest industrial and urban services precincts in that area.

It is close to the Bankstown Aerodrome, while the Carnarvon Golf Club is to the east and the Leightonfield train station to the north.

Despite tightly held logistics space in Sydney, substantial developments are in the works, with Billbergia and ESR planning major industrial sites as well as Centennial, which has acquired $163 million in logistics works.