Apartment developer Coronation eyes Sydney site slated for data centre for $85m

Build-to-rent has won out in the battle for a huge Sydney site that was once destined to be a data centre. The buyer is fast becoming the largest operator in NSW.

Coronation Property’s build-to-rent developments include the $250m Mason & Main housing precinct in western Sydney.

Property developer Coronation is stepping up its ambitions of becoming one of the country’s largest developers of rental homes and is circling a major site in Sydney’s Macquarie Park for about $85m.

The private developer is targeting a site that was put on the block by Asian warehousing giant ESR last year as it sought to cash in on the boom in the fast growing build-to-rent sector.

Coronation is targeting the ESR-owned property at 44-50 Waterloo Rd, which the vendor picked up four years ago from an AMP fund for $71m. It had it earmarked for a data centre but was caught up in a broader change of zoning. The Asian group then tapped Colliers to sell the property and had hopes of attracting developers.

ESR said when it bought the site in 2021 that it had the development potential for a 46,000sq m project but it is now concentrated on other areas and developments in areas in Sydney including Horsley Park and Erskine Park, as well as Moorebank.

Coronation could capitalise on the site’s position next to the Macquarie Park Train Station, with tenants in the existing buildings on the 1.5ha site to depart once works get underway. The Macquarie Park site has a gross rental holding income of about $3.48m per annum while plans are finalised.

Coronation declined to comment but industry sources said that it was very much in acquisition mode and had 4000 build-to-rent units either completed or under construction around Sydney.

Coronation has a near $6bn pipeline of build-to-rent and build-to-sell apartments and expects to operate a portfolio of at least 3500 BTR apartments by 2028. Its other build-to-rent projects include Mason & Main in Sydney’s Merrylands, which comprises 434 build-to-rent apartments and 415 build-to-sell apartments; Charlie Parker in Parramatta, which comprises 123 build-to-rent apartments; a $2bn project in Erskineville comprising 1100 build-to-rent apartments; and Precinct 75 in St Peters, with 200 build-to-rent apartments.

Coronation has been expanding its pipeline in inner Sydney. It last year revealed plans for two new mixed-use precincts in inner Sydney comprising 750 build-to-rent apartments, with a combined end value of $1.45bn.

It acquired sites in Waterloo and St Leonards for the new style complexes. The Waterloo site was sold by private companies associated with Dr Jeffery Eisman and Cheryl Saluck. It will have retail space, parks, pedestrian areas and 400 build-to-rent apartments.

The St Leonards site, at 46-52 Nicholson Street, was picked up from the billionaire Kahlbetzer family’s Twynam Group for more than $78m. The property is well placed to capitalise on Sydney’s new Metro line, with the site near Crows Nest station.

Colliers agents Guillaume Volz, Trent Gallagher, Adam Woodward and James Mitchell are handling the sale. They had said the site was a rare opportunity to acquire 15,198sq m of land within the Macquarie Park residential and commercial precinct. But they and ESR declined to comment.

Originally published as Apartment developer Coronation eyes Sydney site slated for data centre for $85m