Data CentresPatrick LauWed 30 Sep 26
Cow Pastures Listed for $1bn in Sydney Industrial Rezoning
A billion dollars of cow paddocks about 40km northwest of the Sydney CBD have been marketed in August and September, with industrial campaigns picking up at the Marsden Park North precinct as a state-led rezoning nears finalisation.
CBRE is marketing the 737ha cattle farm Echo Vale with an expectation of $700 million. The campaign follows an August listing by Colliers of a 154ha landholding in the vicinity, with guidance of about $300 million.
The broader North West Growth Area has become a hotspot for industrial megadeals. About 3km to the north, JLL has just closed expressions of interest for a 10-30ha industrial parcel within the mixed-use Richards suburb.
The Marsden Park North precinct had been intended for 6200 homes under a 2018 rezoning proposal. However, major flooding post-exhibition caused a rethink, and a new proposal exhibited in November 2025 is expected to be finalised soon, allowing 260ha of employment land and just 960 homes.
According to CBRE, Echo Vale’s developable land of 129ha could yield 594,450sq m of industrial gross floor area. The Richmond Road frontage, where a $720-million road upgrade is under way, is touted as a key attraction. The future M9 Orbital would also connect the site to the Western Sydney International Airport about 30km to the south.
Richmond Road currently records about 89,000 vehicle movements every day, with traffic forecast to grow as data centre construction activity in the northwest picks up, and residential development unfurls.
Echo Vale has over a century of agricultural use, including under the Vestey family, which at times has reportedly been the United Kingdom’s second-wealthiest family (following the royal Windsors). The farmland was acquired by Garfield Pastoral Holdings in 1996, and has continued breeding and grazing operations since.
Meanwhile, the 154ha plot campaigned by Colliers in August includes 45ha of developable land with potential yield of 202,050sq m industrial GFA. Support for up to 1200MVA positions the land as a potential data centre, according to Colliers.
A data centre was also floated for the JLL campaign that closed earlier in September, within the 230ha Richards development.
That site benefits from adjacency to a 330kV substation, a trunk gas pipeline, and a Sydney Water Resource Recovery Facility producing recycled water. The broader mixed-use Richards project will yield 20,000 jobs within a 15-minute city.
While no price guide was given, JLL senior director of data centres Matthew Lee told The Urban Developer that the campaign was “well-pursued given the lack of industrial zoned land available in western Sydney at the moment”.
The diverse bidders included “a mix of local and international groups including developers as well as owner-occupiers”, Lee said.
