The acquisition by Australia's largest diversified property group, comes shortly after its proposal for a $300 million mixed-use project to revitalise the Merrylands business centre.
The Marsden Park project borders the company’s 198 hectare Elara community, the masterplan for which is expected to yield more than 2300 residential lots,
The new acquisition is expected to yield more than 1500 additional residential lots.
“This is a good investment for Stockland which increases our exposure to the strongly performing Sydney residential property market,” said Mark Steinert, managing director and CEO at Stockland,
“The North West Sydney Growth Centre remains under-supplied, given the pent up demand for vacant land and the strong underlying fundamentals that we see for this corridor.”
A development application has been lodged with Blacktown City Council and, subject to planning approval, Stockland expects to release the first land for sale within the new development in the 2017 financial year.
Meanwhile, Cumberland Council is examining the public’s submissions on Stockland’s plans for a new mixed-use residential apartments and retail development in Merrylands.
The $300 million proposal is adjacent to Stockland Merrylands Shopping Centre, which the company redeveloped and expanded in recent years at a total cost of $395 million.
The plans are to build more than 500 new apartments across five buildings, ranging in height from 11 to 17 storeys, within a 1.2-hectare development site.
Gavin Tonnet, national head of apartments and mixed use development at Stockland said the idea was create a new city centre that would become a destination in its own right for a wide range of uses.
"Our plan is to undertake the development in a number of stages, which will help to de-risk the project and isolate areas of construction activity, thereby minimising disruption to the community," he said.
“It’s exactly what the area needs, the last thing built on Merrylands Road was Red Rooster and that was 35 years ago,” said John Perry, Merrylands Chamber of Commerce president.
Stockland’s $228 million investment in its nearby Wetherill Park shopping centre has transformed it into a major regional centre with a gross lettable area of 70,000 square metres.
