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Developers cross the border - Financial Review
Soaring Gold Coast and south Brisbane industrial rents are prompting Queensland developers to buylarge rural holdings in northern NSW for the development of big industrial estates.
In his first foray into industrial development, Heritage Pacific managing director Paul Barrett
proposes a $100 million industrial estate near the Pacific Highway at Pottsville on the NSW north
coast.
Mr Barrett, a developer of significant residential subdivisions in Queensland, has paid $20 million for
a 50 hectare rural holding, acquiring it from several local families, including the Taggett family.
Queensland developer Peter Mitchell, of the Gold Coast, is also trying to lure developers to his $350
million industrial estate near Murwillumbah, also on the NSW north coast. He spent $32 million
acquiring a 55 hectare site last year.
Both developers were drawn to the area because of its cheapness compared with the Gold Coast and
because of its proximity to the newly opened Tugan Bypass, which feeds traffic into the Gold Coast.
Mr Mitchell says average industrial land at Burleigh Heads is $520 a square metre for a 3000 square
metre site, whereas some of the northern NSW estates offer land at a fraction of the cost.
DTZ Queensland joint managing director Andrew King says finding large-scale industrial property is
unquestionably becoming harder in the Brisbane regional area. "As a result the surrounding areas,
once their infrastructure and road networks can support access, will become an attractive alternative,"
he said. "In the short to medium term a lot of the established industrial precincts that are well
serviced by existing road and infrastructure remain very popular."
Mr Barrett revealed his plans for Pottsville yesterday and said he would charge as little as $300 a
square metre for sites.
"It's a less expensive alternative to the Gold Coast and south Brisbane and the industrial supply of
land on the Gold Coast is fast diminishing," Mr Barrett told the AFR. "We feel it's very accessible to
service those markets. We envisage we will do a mixture of both selling the land and doing
developments for people who want to use it."
He said development of the Pottsville estate would be funded internally and from bank funding.
"The estate will generate between 22 and 55 jobs per hectare depending on the industry."
Mr Barrett said it had taken him six months to acquire the land, half of which is zoned general
industrial.
"We know there is some interest out there. We know there is serious demand."
Further north, Heritage Pacific is developing a 700-lot housing subdivision at Coomera on the
northern Gold Coast, as well as a 2000-lot subdivision at Nerangba, north of Brisbane.
