Goodman Files Plans for Former Caltex Headquarters

Global industrial property giant Goodman Group has lodged plans for a big last-mile logistics complex just 25km west of the centre of Sydney.

Australia’s biggest developer of industrial property is seeking to build three warehouses with 10 warehouse units on a prime 7.1-ha property at 132 McCredie Road, Guildford West.

Goodman acquired the property from BP Australia in June 2021, paying $40.2 million according to onload records. Castrol has been leasing back those facilities for the past two years.

As part of the deal BP agreed to remediate the site, which, according to documents before the Cumberland City Council, is currently in progress.

The existing facilities will be demolished to make way for the new development which will cost about $71.5 million.

BCI Central data shows architects Nettleton Tribe have designed the three warehouse buildings which will include 10 industrial units ranging in size from 1131sq m to 6659 square metres.  Each will include office space and up to six loading bays.

The development will have a total gross floor arear 37,047 square metres. A little more than a hectare of the site will be given over to landscaped space and plans call for 45 loading docks and parking for 255 vehicles.

Urban planners Mecone said in documents before the Cumberland council the facility was “intended to provide for a range of warehouse uses, subject to individual tenant needs”.

Increasingly, industrial developers are opting to build speculatively, safe in the knowledge Australia currently boasts the lowest industrial occupancy rates in the World. CBRE research shows only about 35 per cent of Australia’s supply pipeline is speculative development, compared to other markets, such as the US, where more than 50 per cent is speculative. 

At just 0.2 per cent, Sydney had the lowest vacancy rate of any major city in the world according to CBRE, followed closely by Perth on 0.4 per cent.

▲ Elsewhere in the city, Goodman has started construction on an adaptive re-use project that will turn 90-year-old inner city warehouses into modern office facilities.

That then makes Goodman’s acquisition of the Smithfield site something of a coup. Just 30 minutes’ drive from the Sydney centre and nestled near the junction of the M4 Western Motorway and the A28 Cumberland Highway, the 7.2-ha site is prime industrial land in a tightly held neighbourhood.

With a capital investment value of more than $30 million the final arbiter on the development application will be the Sydney Central City Planning Panel.

Elsewhere, Goodman has begun work on an adaptive re-use of three heritage-listed warehouses covering an entire block in Sydney’s south.

Goodman has teamed up with privately owned builder-developer Taylor to take the vacant and somewhat dilapidated warehouses at 115-151 Dunning Avenue, Rosebery and turn them into office space, a café, gymnasium and childcare centre.

At various stages the six lots that make up Rosebery Engine Yards have housed the former Westinghouse factory and the one-time Commonwealth Weaving Mills.

Under the plans a grand ornamental entrance, which makes up the main façade of the property at the corner of Hayes Road and Dunning Avenue, will be retained as will the sawtooth ceilings, timber and steel framework and exposed brickwork.

At 1.9ha the site is one of the biggest heritage brownfield developments in the area.

Goodman hopes to have the project finished by October this year.