Malaysian group pounces on Macquarie Park site
Malaysia-listed Eco World International Berhad has swooped on a prime apartment site in Macquarie Park in Sydney’s booming northwestern suburbs, for a $139 million mixed-use project.
The group has snapped up 1-3 Lachlan Ave, and some associated land, for around $40 million and is looking to cash in on the area’s overhaul around Macquarie University, a major business park district, revamped train station and the overhauled shopping centre.
The area hosts major global players across the pharmaceutical, technology, telecommunications and electronics industries.
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But it has also been a magnet for developers including China’s Greenland Australia, China Overseas Holdings, Golden Age Group and John Holland.
An example of the Eco World touch in Paramatta.
EcoWorld International chief executive Dato Teow Leong Seng says his company is focused “on serving the needs of the domestic property market” and cites the group’s strategies in Australia and Britain to attract local buyers.
“(This) began with the acquisition of the Yarra One site in South Yarra, Melbourne. This was followed by our recent entry into the heads of agreement with Willmott Dixon to potentially acquire 12 projects in the UK,” he says.
There is a strata building on the Macquarie Park site with 30 en-bloc apartment units. Under NSW’s new strata laws, 75% of unit owners in a strata scheme can agree to end their scheme so the site can be redeveloped or sold.
The site includes 30 en-bloc apartment units.
Eco World International has struck a call and put an option agreement with owners of 25 of the units to buy them via a collective sale, which amounts to about 84.2% of the scheme. The company estimates it will spend about $40 million on the whole site, which was marketed by CBRE’s Peter Krieg, Ben Wicks and Tao Shi.
It will develop about 125 units and some shops as part of the project that it will launch in 2019.
EcoWorld International has five ongoing projects in Australia and Britain and has previously been active in Sydney, where it is developing West Village in Parramatta. It also entered the Melbourne market this year with the 27-storey, 268-unit development in South Yarra.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
