In one of the largest offerings in South Sydney’s history, the Michell family has put the Lakes Business Park at Botany on the block with expectations of about $150 million.
The offer of the park, that sits close to Sydney airport, comes as residential developers transform the area, with their conversion projects putting an even greater premium on business parks.
South Sydney landlords, Dexus Property Group, which has an adjacent site, Goodman Group and Australand Property Group, now controlled by Singapore’s Frasers Centrepoint, are expected to vie for the holding company that owns the land.
The land is being offered for sale for the first time since the business park was set up around two decades ago. The Michell family picked up the property in the 1950s and ran a wool processing plant until 1987, when it was closed and the site has since been redeveloped.
JLL Corporate Finance is handling the sale of the 43,600 square metre business park at Lord Street, Botany. The complex comprises eight buildings on the banks of the historic Mill Ponds.
JLL’s Chris Key said the asset was one of the largest prime business parks in South Sydney. He added that the 7.9 hectare landholding had low floor-space ratio use of just 55 per cent.
The park is also positioned for future expansion, with an approved masterplan that would allow development of the site to more than 70,000 square metres of business park space.
The holding spans two parcels — a 5 hectare northern holding and a 3 hectare southern holding. As an alternative, the southern site could sustain 450 apartments.
This could see a consortium of buyers emerge rather than a single purchaser securing the entire site.
The area’s shift towards residential development, with buyers like Harry Triguboff’s Meriton Apartments swooping on sites, is forcing tenants to look for new homes in the area, lifting rents.
Major infrastructure has been directed at South Sydney, notably the WestConnex motorway.