Centuria Lodges $50m Distribution Centre Plans

Centuria has lodged plans for a $50-million speculative distribution centre in Sydney’s Wetherill Park. 

A planning report from Urbis on behalf of Centuria Capital Ltd detailed the listed investor’s plans for the site at 88 Newton Road on Dharug Country. 

Designed by SBA Architects, the plans submitted to Fairfield City Council for the 5.9ha site propose a single-storey warehouse and distribution centre. 

It will include ancillary offices and carparking for 213 vehicles, and have a total gross floor area of 30,250 square metres.

Centuria has also submitted a State Significant DA for a 57,000sq m multi-storey industrial development on the site, which Centuria Industrial REIT (CIP) fund manager and head of listed funds Grant Nichols said was a strategy play.

“The reason for two applications is to maintain optionality across the Wetherill Park site,” he told The Urban Developer. 

“We will determine the most appropriate solution based on prevailing tenant demand and investor appetite.”

The buildings onsite, which will be demolished to make way for the new development, are two distribution centres, used by Weir Minerals Group and hardware maker ITW Proline. 

The site is east of the M7 motorway, with access to the M4 motorway to the north. 

Future tenants had not yet been confirmed, Centuria’s development application stated, but the building would be designed to house a typical warehouse or distribution occupier. 

“Wetherill Park is an urban infill industrial market characterised by its close proximity to densely populated areas, being close to the geographical centre of Sydney,” Nichols said. 

 “Currently, urban infill markets are supply constrained as tenant demand is highest in these areas and there is limited development opportunity.

“These markets enable operators easy access to end-users as well as a consistent labour force.”

Centuria Capital posted its annual financial results this month and alongside retail, industrial proved to be a bright spot. 

The funds manager executed more than 300,000sq m of leasing and announced a $1-billion pipeline for CIP.

It recently opened the doors to its $116-million super-prime industrial estate in Melbourne’s north, following a $500-million mandate announced last year focusing on industrial assets.

Considered the ‘golden child’ of the Covid period, industrial has remained relatively strong, fuelled by private capital investors.

They accounted for 53 per cent of the logistics and industrial (L&I) investment market so far in 2024, a significant rise from the long-term average of 15 per cent, according to agents JLL.