Stockland in talks with developer John Boyd on Sydney airport logistics precinct

In what could be the final mega project of his storeyed property career, veteran developer John Boyd is in talks with Stockland to develop a controversial Cooks Cove site into a logistics precinct.

In 2021 plans to relocate the Kogarah Golf Club to make way for housing were dropped and developer John Boyd instead put up the plans for the e-commerce hub and tourist accommodation.

Property heavyweight Stockland is in talks with high-profile developer John Boyd about forming a partnership to develop a huge site on the Cooks River next to Sydney airport into a multi-billion dollar industrial precinct.

The move would see the controversial Cooks Cove site at last developed into a sprawling e-commerce warehousing precinct in the shadows of the busy airport, with the listed group to put its muscle behind Mr Boyd’s latest vision.

The long-time property player is well-known in property and social circles and was a friend of the late Kerry Packer. He is best known for putting together the site that became the Liberty Place in the Sydney CBD, which also included an opulent penthouse that ranked one of the city’s most expensive.

In 2021, Ian Malouf, Australia’s richest garbo, spent a then record $60m-plus to buy the penthouse in the Sydney CBD from Mr Boyd and his wife Marly. The sale helped him continue to pursue the Cooks Cove project, which has been in planning for almost two decades.

Mr Boyd, who reportedly started life as a tow-truck driver before shifting into property development, also received a windfall in the late 1990s when British firm Sports and Outdoor Media International PLC bought his advertising company, Boyd Outdoor. But he is best known for his property plays.

John Boyd, centre, with former Mirvac and Lendlease executive John Carfi, left, and Greater Western Sydney Giants chair Tony Shepherd.

The Cooks Cove precinct was once mooted as a primarily residential precinct that would have seen 5,000 homes developed on land including the Kogarah Golf Course and associated parcels of council-owned land, but this scheme was dumped ahead of the coronavirus crisis.

Industry players said that the latest land deal was worth about $750m – down from hopes that had approached $1bn during the industrial land boom – and Stockland would develop the site in coming years into one of the country’s largest collections of multi -level warehouses.

The site had earlier been chased by industrial property player Logos and still requires works including a key bridge to be built.

There have been a series of proposals to rezone the area since early 2000s and Mr Body’s latest scheme is focused on a logistics and warehousing precinct that will sit on the western foreshore of the Cooks River, in the southern suburb of Arncliffe. The scheme would cover 36.2ha of land north of the M5 Motorway and west of the Kingsford Smith International Airport terminal.

The Cooks Cove indicative master plan, prepared by planning firm Hassell, includes a net development zone spanning 15ha with up to 343,250sq m space. This would be split between 290,000sq m for multi-level logistics and warehousing, 22,350 sqm for offices, 20,000sq m for hotels and 10,900sq m of retail uses.

It would have multi-level logistics with building heights of about five storeys and a retail podium with commercial office and hotel above, up to a total of 12 storeys. The plans say that about 3,300 new jobs would be created.

In 2021, plans to relocate the Kogarah Golf Club to make way for housing were dropped and Mr Boyd instead put up the plans for the e-commerce hub and tourist accommodation. The golf club claimed credit for prompting Mr Boyd’s Cook Cove Inlet Pty Ltd to dump the housing project. The well-connected developer agreed to cut the space back, down from the 568,000sq m which had been slated for the residential properties.

Plans to move the golf course south, valued at more than $100m, had been lodged in 2016, but were later withdrawn, and the club has since struck a merger deal with Liverpool Golf Club.

Stockland declined to comment.