Six years on Sydney’s high tech aerotropolis is just a ‘shed with a fancy pergola’

It’s ‘just a shed with a fancy pergola’, say international companies who feel betrayed that virtually nothing has been built six years after they signed up to be part of a hi-tech aerotropolis

The building to house stage one of the hi-tech development is due for completion in 2024.

Six years after signing up to be part of Sydney’s new hi-tech aerotropolis, international companies feel betrayed that virtually nothing has been built.

Business leaders are now calling for the Western Parkland City Authority to be disbanded to prevent the innovation precinct from turning into a field of warehouses.

Almost 40 businesses including powerhouse companies Siemens, BAE Systems, Hitachi and Mitsubishi have signed Memorandums of Understanding with the NSW Government to be part of the new precinct surrounding Western Sydney Airport.

But sources close to many of them have told The Daily Telegraph they feel let down with the lack of communication from the WPCA which has given no central point of contact to discuss time frames on when serviceable land will be available.

Renders of what the development is supposed to look like are a far cry from what has been done so far.

“It is a bit embarrassing that we spent so many years talking a big game about multinational companies coming to the aerotropolis but no one has managed to land there yet,” David Borger, Business Western Sydney executive director, said.

“These companies are led on a very long dance but it is not clear what is on offer for them.”

Global defence and aerospace company Northrop Grumman was the first to sign up with plans for a $50 million investment in an advanced defence electronics maintenance centre in May 2017.

But more than six years later the WPCA’s December newsletter has only just trumpeted the start of work on Bradfield City Centre’s first building – stage one of a new Advanced Manufacturing and Research Facility and visitor centre that will not be completed until 2024.

“We really do need a strategy for the Western Sydney aerotropolis that will mean it is ready to operate when the airport opens. That requires a level of co-ordination,” Mr Borger said.

Flights are due to start operating from the new international airport at Badgerys Creek in 2026 but Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest warned the infrastructure was not in place to support the opening of surrounding businesses in time.

“All the employment land surrounding the airport that was the scene of multiple ribbon cuttings and MOU signing ceremonies is yet to be filled with any workers because the WPCA failed to co-ordinate the delivery of the public roads and water infrastructure needed to get a development approved,” he said.

“After all the tens of millions of dollars that have been poured into WPCA, all we have is a Metro to St Marys and a shed with a fancy pergola,” Mr Forrest said.

He called on the WPCA to be disbanded and responsibility for delivering the aerotropolis given to Infrastructure NSW and the Department of Planning.

A spokeswoman for the WPCA said a dedicated team was working with industry partners on driving growth in the aerotropolis and work on the Metro station in Bradfield already underway.

“MOUs have now been signed with 38 industry partners who are provided with regular updates, site tours, and were most recently briefed in mid-December,” she said.

“An invitation for first projects in advanced manufacturing generated over 30 proposals from SMEs and large manufacturers, covering the advanced technology, defence, and research sectors.”

One of the first targets for the new aerotropolis was to build a Space Industry Hub with 18 NSW companies including the CSIRO signing up to be a part of it. However many in the sector were critical of how that was being developed by the WPCA.

Jackie Carpenter, founder of Space STEM outreach not for profit One Giant Leap, said she was surprised to have not been approached.

“I know nothing about who has signed an MOU and have not been approached,” she said. “Given we sit in the middle of Western Sydney and represent Australia in Japan and other places perhaps that says something about what is happening there.”

Originally published as Six years on Sydney’s high tech aerotropolis is just a ‘shed with a fancy pergola’