Rollout of $50 million network

 Things go better at Coke

Coca-Cola Amatil’s $45 million investment in two PET bottle-making lines, at its Northmead plant, was achieving substantial reductions in the cost of PET resin, freight and storage, according to CEO, Terry Davis. He said would seek board approval to install similar lines at other facilities in Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, at a cost of more than $300 million.

The Penrith Business Alliance (formerly the Penrith Economic Development Corporation) has welcomed the $71 million allocated to complete the detailed planning on the Moorebank intermodal terminal project. “Penrith is pushing to be a regional transport and logistics hub.We have trucking businesses in the area and the new one at Moorebank will help us,” said CEO, Bijai Kumar..

Blue Mountains Council, which lost $580,000 buying into Icelandic banks in 2007-08, wants to raise rates 7 per cent and is considering reports to sell shops at Lawson, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, which said financially troubled councils across the state were applying for rate rises while voting to sell off community assets to pay the bills.

US paint giant, Valspar, proposes a $110 million takeover of Australian icon, Wattyl, based at Norwest Business Park. Wattyl is number two in the local market after Dulux and above Taubmans and new arrival Nippon Paints.

 

Cape Cod Australia Pty Ltd, in North Parramatta, has won the 2010 HIA Australian Housing Awards’ Professional Renovator Builder of the Year award. Cape Cod employs around 20 full time staff and has a subcontractor network of around 100, many of whom have been associated with the company for over 10 years. The company services the greater Sydney area, and Blue Mountains and Gosford districts, according to its website.

Premier, Kristina Keneally, and Minister for Transport, John Robertson, officially opened Custom Coaches’ new $20 million head office and factory, at Villawood. The facility employs nearly 400 people, including 50 apprentices – an additional 13 apprentice positions would be sought in June. The facility, the largest fully integrated bus building plant in Australia, currently produces 230 buses a year, and supplies vehicles to the STA and private bus operators in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

 

Wyeth building on the market

The corporate office of Wyeth Australia, in Norwest Business Park, is for sale or lease. The six-level building, with over 300 car spaces, has a net leasing area of 7974 square metres on a 1.8-hectare site. Pfizer received clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, in September, to acquire Wyeth. Pfizer has its Australia head office, at West Ryde.

Collaboration is vital

Collaboration with international scientific organisations is vital to the success of Australian research, according to Professor Andrew Cheetam, pro vice-chancellor, research, at the University of Western Sydney. “But it is not clear to me [that governments] fully understand its importance and consequently do not fund such collaboration and participation at a high enough level. There are schemes available but in reality they are quite small in scale and scope,” he said in an article in the latest About the House magazine published by the Department of the House of Representatives. The article, Knowledge Networks, noted the value of international collaboration leading to important scientific breakthroughs.

Restaurant for sale at $3.5 million

One of Parramata’s established restaurants, Barnaby’s, in Phillip Street in the CBD, is on the market., at $3.5 million, negotiable, for the freehold site overlooking the Parramatta River. The restaurant, which has operated for some 35 years, was previously owned by local identity, Michael Fisher, who sold it many years ago. A number of attempts to sell the property have been made in recent times. One of the restaurant’s high profile guests was Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former US president, Bill Clinton, who dined there during the 2000 Olympic Games.

Take over bid for local company

Melbourne-based consumer and industrial products supplier, GUD Holdings, has offered $83.8 million to take over storage products maker, Dexion, which has its head office and industrial production at Kings Park. Dexion manufactures and markets a broad range of storage products within Australia, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. The company has 55 regional distribution points across Asia and the Middle East, with regional headquarters in Dubai and Kuala Lumpur.

EOI for hospital network

NSW Health has ccalled for expressions of interest for a chief executive, of the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (Randwick and Westmead). The network is a newly established statutory health corporation comprising the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and the Sydney Children’s Hospital, and providing specialist paediatric services to childre throughout NSW. NSW Health has also called for expressions of interest for appointment to the network’s advisory council.

PhD student awarded $60,000

 

Ingleburn PhD student James Hitchcock, at the University of Technology Sydney, will receive $60,000 after being awarded the second Peter Cullen Postgraduate Scholarship, which was established as a tribute to the late water scientist Professor Peter Cullen. The scholarship is co-sponsored by NSW government water agencies including the NSW Office of Water, Sydney Catchment Authority, State Water, Hunter Water and 
Sydney Water.

Up to 350 jobs could be created in the Blue Mountains after the federal government announced it would provide $3.5 million for a 22-hectare clean technology park. The funding will go towards council’s $5.8 million, environmentally-sensitive plan to upgrade the “run-down” Lawson Industrial Estate, and will be used to provide stormwater, electrical and telecommunications infrastructure as well as footpaths, cycleways and landscaping. The project was expected to support 100 local jobs during construction.

Multi-storey car park for CBD

The Transport Infrastructure and Development Corporation will design and build a new car park planned for the Cabramatta business district. Fairfield City Council’s previous plans for a ground-level car park, with an option to build more levels later, at the corner of Hill Street and Cabramatta Road, have been scrapped and a multi-storey car park will be built on the site. Concept plans for a five-storey car park have been costed at up to $20 million, but a decision has not yet been made.

 

The Australian Racing Drivers Club (ARDC), at Eastern Creek, has appointed former Panthers Group chief executive, Glenn Matthews, as the club’s newly created position of general manager. He will take up his position on July1. The CEO’s position attracted more than 70 applicants.

 

 

 

Parramatta City Council CEO, Dr Robert Lang, anticipates work on the $1.4 billion Civic Place redevelopment to commence mid-year, with parking for approximately 100 staff vehicles, in the area facing Smith Street and adjacent to the Sydney Water head office, to be relocated to council’s Wentworth Street Car Park, from June.

 

 

Stage B2 of the South West Rail Link project incorporating 11 kilometres of double track rail line including rail infrastructure, two train stations at Edmondson Park and Leppington; and a train stabling facility at Rossmore, west of Leppington, is on public exhibition.

 

 

Parramatta City Council reports, in the its draft quarterly review for the March period, that two major corporate sponsors, at $50,000 each, had dropped out in the period and others were not forthcoming. The target for the period was $52,000. The actual contribution was $15,000. “In a recovering economy, we plan to turn this around by at least $50,000 in the next period,” the document said. Sponsorship has fallen dramatically, since June 2009, when $60,000 was achieved.

 

 

 

 

Macquarie University director of sustainability, Leanne Denby, has been appointed president, of Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS), the primary forum for sustainability in the Australian and New Zealand tertiary sector.ACTS’ mission is to promote the integration of principles of sustainability within the tertiary sector’s institutional curricula and operations.

Minister opens Watpac building

 

The Minister for Western Sydney, David Borger, officially opened Brisbane-based Watpac’s NSW headquarters, in Sydney Olympic Park. Key tenants of the six-storey building, in addition to Watpac, include Fujitsu, Blue Wealth Property, and Sydney Olympic Park Authority.

John Holland to build turnback

John Holland Pty Ltd as the preferred construction contractor for the $93 million Liverpool Turnback Project, which includes an additional platform and track at Liverpool Station. The station currently has three platforms and serves as a pivotal point for freight, inter urban and local rail services on the Bankstown, Inner West, South and Cumberland Lines.

Catriona Noble, who worked as a part-timer with McDonald’s, in Northmead, 27 years ago, was promoted from managing director to chief executive, of McDonald’s Australia, last month, following the retirement of Peter Bush. The company, which has annual sales of more than $3 million, has 810 stores around the nation, of which 70 per cent are franchised.

 

 

The Environment Minister, Frank Sartor, has announced the first of the state's highly controversial ''BioBank'' sites with the government purchase of 80 hectares of grassland near Camden as a permanent conservation reserve. The offset purchase marks a new era in environmental management and is the first step in a plan to secure some of the surviving pockets of building land in Western Sydney for the construction of 180,000 houses in 40 years. The $1.7 million paid for the Camden reserve, funded through a developer levy, will be used to manage the site for conservation

 

 

 

 

Police object to KFC outlet

Hills Shire Council has given approval for The Mean Fiddler, at Rouse Hill, to open the 20-seat restaurant. Police believe the state’s “most dangerous pub” will become even more dangerous with plans to build the restaurant in the carpark. “The Mean Fiddler Hotel is currently rated as the worst licensed premises in NSW for violence and drink driving offences,” Hills Police constable, Callie Walker, told council.

Servcorp opens in July

An integrated economic development strategy and to guide decision-making for the area's economic development into the future will be prepared, according to Fairfield City Council's draft management plan for the next four years. An Inward Investment and Industry Development Program will provide opportunities for local business operators to expand operations to address supply and/or industry gaps, or attract businesses to establish or relocate to the area.

New appointment at university

 

Mark Broomfield has been appointed director, office of major projects, at Macquarie University. Mr Broomfield spent 17 years with ING Australia and more recently worked in the Middle East. Macquarie chief operating officer, Peter Dodd, said in The Australian Financial Review the university was midway through a major investment in campus restructure and development, with projects, such as, Cochlear’s global HQ and the new station precinct.

 

 

Expressions of interest have been called in The Mall Wentworthville, a shopping centre of 5403 square metres of lettable space, on a site of 8951 square metres. Franklins and 38 specialty shops anchor the centre, which has a current net income of $11.8 million annually. A fire broke out in the centre on July 21, 2009, causing damage of more than $1 million. It re-opened last October.

 

 

Dexus Property Group has purchased the Centrewest Industrial Estate, in Silverwater, which has a gross lettable area of 17,838 square meters, for $24.4 million, from Mirvac Group.

 

 

Parramatta and Baulkham Hills (now The Hills Shire) are the two local government areas in Western Sydney with the greatest number of workers in the finance and insurance (FI) sector, and the professional, scientific and technical services (PST) sector. The latest forecasts by the Transport Data Centre highlight the significant increase in both sectors over the 30-year period, 2006-2036. In the Parramatta LGA, the number of workers in the FI sector will increase from 9653 to 14,258, up 47.7 per cent, and that in the PST sector from 5845 to 7742, up 32.5 percent. In Baulkham Hills, the FI sector will increase from 2255 to 3094, up 37.3 per cent and that in the PST sector from 6244 to 8259, up 32.3 per cent.

Delegation to China

The Penrith Business Alliance will coordinate a business delegation to accompany the Mayor Kevin Crameri, on an international visitation program to China and Korea, in October.

Urban growth summit

Australia’s first Urban Population Growth Summit will be held at the Casula Powerhouse, on July 20. Clr Alison McLaren, president, of the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC), which will host the event, said Western Sydney was the obvious site to hold a summit of such national importance because it was one of the areas which would be most affected by future population growth and its associated issues

 

The NSW Government and the fourteen local councils in Greater Western

Sydney have identified over 100 potential manufacturing leads for business expansion and relocation to the region. Industry & Investment NSW will actively pursue all these leads, using the Western Sydney Business Employment Fund, where appropriate, to attract these firms to Western Sydney over next 12 months. This was an initiative included in the NSW Government Response to the Western Sydney Jobs Summit, held in February.

 

 

The Department of Planning has on public exhibition a DA for alterations and additions to the RAS Exhibition Hall. The estimated cost is $30 million.

The Hastie Group, based at Auburn, has purchased the assets of Spectrum Fire & Security, one of the largest fire services businesses in Australia, with revenues in excess of $100 million a year, a national footprint and over 600 employees.

 

 

 

The $125 million Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa, in the Blue Mountains, won three categories, at the 13th annual AHA (NSW) Accommodation Awards for Excellence: Best Environmental Initiative, Regional Deluxe Accommodation of the Year and Outstanding Contribution to Tourism. Accommodation establishments, which contested other categories, were Loxley on Bellbird Hill, Crowne Plaza Parramatta, Novotel Sydney Olympic Park, Pullman at Sydney Olympic Park, Lilianfels Blue Mountains Resort & Spa and the Carrington Hotel.

The proposed $1.4 billion Civic Place project is part of Parramatta City Council’s plans for the redevelopment of the core of the CBD. Council noted in its Integrated Transport Plan for the Parramatta City Centre that the redevelopment of the Civic Place block had commenced in 2009 with the opening of Sydney Water’s head office. Three additional blocks are included in the plans, namely, Horwood Place, Erby Place and Riverside (a block bounded by the Parramatta River, Church, Phillip and Smith streets/Wilde Avenue) all contain council car parks, “representing significant areas for redevelopment, along with private land owners”. The document said there were numerous privately owned sites that have been mooted for development.

Rezoning of 1300 hectares

The NSW Government has rezoned almost 1300 hectares of land in the Riverstone and Alex Avenue Precincts – two of 16 in the North West Growth Centre – to allow construction of 15,000 new homes for 45,000 people, six new schools, parks, playing fields and two large conservation reserves to protect native vegetation.

Aerospace firm seeks staff

Marshall of Cambridge Aerospace, one of Europe’s leading privately owned aerospace companies, a sub-contractor to Qantas Defence Services (QDS), at Richmond RAAF Base, has advertised for business development managers for the Asia Pacific and Australia/New Zealand. The Marshall Aerospace Australia’s engineering team, co-located with QDS, at Richmond, is responsible for providing all types of C-130 aircraft engineering support ranging from structural repair design, general technical and logistics support to comprehensive avionics modification upgrades.

$30,000 for indigenous tourism

The NSW Government has committed $30,000 to an Indigenous tourism program for the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. The Minister for Small Business, Peter Primrose, said the financial assistance would be matched by funds from Blue Mountains, Lithgow and Oberon Tourism.