A stunning 33 story $500M tower dominating the CBD skyline is the eye-catching highlight of the project.
Billionaire developer Mr Lang Walker will shortly start building the complex after winning a major state government tenancy for the Parramatta project.
The Parramatta Square development will become home to 4200 public servants after Mr Walker’s Walker Corporation won a Property NSW tender to lease up to 43,800sqm of office space in 2021.
The win comes after the two joined Parramatta office buildings valued at $1.7B were given the green light by Sydney Central City Planning Panel.
Known as 6 and 8 Parramatta Square, the joined buildings, one on top of the other, will become the largest commercial office tower in Australia comprising 125,000sqm, exceeding even the largest Barangaroo tower.
The government tenancy gives Mr Walker a sufficient commitment to make the project feasible, with construction expected get under way within the next year.
Project under way
The joined towers will take their place within Mr Walker’s larger four-tower $3.2B development within the Parramatta Square precinct which is already well underway.
The first tower, Tower 4 is expected to be completed in November this year and the whole project due for completion in 2022.
The NSW government will take a 12-year lease, with two further five-year options, for the space in 6 Parramatta Square.
Mr Walker and his team have also secured financial services group Link Market Services which will move its Sydney offices from Rhodes to the Parramatta Square development in 2021.
Towers 3 and 4 at the Parramatta project are fully pre-committed, with tenants including National Australia Bank and the NSW government secured in an earlier tender.
“Parramatta Square is taking shape quickly and the total project is now 75% pre-leased with over 170,000sqm of high quality office space committed,” Mr Walker told property site Commercial Real Estate.
“We expect to experience a strong flow of pre-leases off the back of the two anchor tenants signing long-term leases in the project, which is one of the largest urban renewal projects in the country and will see Parramatta city rival Sydney’s CBD in terms of amenity and high quality commercial space.”
Charter Hall has also completed a building in the precinct, One Parramatta Square, or 1PSQ, which is the 26,500-square-metre home to the Western Sydney University.
Parramatta Light Rail will provide access to the site for thousands of workers, while access to the existing train station will be made available through a new link into the square.
As well as the university campus and commercial buildings, the mixed-use precinct includes retail space, community facilities, a civic building, community centre, library and a 250m long public domain.
Future projects
The western Sydney hub has been singled out as a key part of the future development of Sydney under plans by the Greater Sydney Commission.
A broader wave of redevelopment is under way in Parramatta, attracting developers and spurring the market in commercial real estate such as GPT’s $278m acquisition of the Eclipse tower from super fund Rest in August 2018.
In 2018, GPT won approval for a $230M office tower development on the corner of Smith St and Phillip St.
Charter Hall has also teamed up with Western Sydney University in plans to develop a $280m education and commercial office project at Parramatta.
In 2017, Dexus sold a tower development in Phillip St to Charter Hall for $229M. It will become the headquarters for the NSW government’s Department of Education.
Parramatta has the lowest vacancy rate of any office market in Australia and will be boosted by the light rail, the promise of a new rapid transit metro, the new Parramatta Stadium, Powerhouse Museum and other important public spaces.
