17 August 2004

St Hilliers has acquired a six hectare development site in the dynamic industrial precinct of Smeaton Grange in south west Sydney.

The vacant corner site at Lot 3509 Hartley Road, Smeaton Grange was purchased from Landcom for in excess of $8.5 million.

Smeaton Grange is a Landcom masterplanned industrial suburb close to the M5 Motorway south of the proposed M7 interchange.

The site was acquired from Landcom and follows St Hilliers successful association with the NSW Government developer in Joint Ventures, including the $105 million Kings Bay residential development at Five Dock and the $34 million Hunterford residential development at Oatlands.

St Hilliers Group Managing Director, Tim Casey, said the site would meet the need for manufacturing and warehouse facilities in a part of Sydney that is experiencing rapid growth and that the group was happy to be able to continue its relationship with Landcom.

"We see an opportunity to offer our integrated property services to the owner-occupier market of this growing industrial precinct by providing turn key Design and Construct Developments on land parcels ranging from one to six hectares."

The site will be marketed for sale or lease through Gavin Bishop of Colliers International and Tod Anderson of CB Richard Ellis and is known as the Hartley Estate.

The Smeaton Grange acquisition follows on from St Hilliers recent purchases of development sites suitable for bulky goods retailing and warehousing.

St Hilliers recently purchased a property at Revesby adjacent to the bulky goods redevelopment at Bankstown Airport. It also has developed a bulky goods retail centre for Coles Megamart at Alexandria (south Sydney) and currently has under construction a similar development in Nowra. The company recently sold its Moorebank holding to MGI for $18.5 million.