LOGOS consortium acquires Moorebank Logistics Park for $1.67B

Property manager LOGOS has signed on a non-binding agreement to acquire Qube’s Moorebank Logistics Park for $1.67 billion, with a consortium of investors bankrolling the landmark investment.

Existing partners AustralianSuper, Ivanhoé Cambridge, TCorp and new partner AXA IM Alts have taken stakes alongside LOGOS in the milestone investment.

Located in southwest Sydney, Moorebank Logistics Park is the largest intermodal freight facility in Australia.

The site includes around 243 hectares of land which will be developed into industrial property and infrastructure.

MLP also includes potential for up to 850,000 square metres of warehouse opportunities directly adjacent to Australia’s largest rail intermodal facilities with direct linkage to Port Botany.

“Our collective vision for MLP represents a fundamental shift in east coast logistics, as a fully automated port-to-site rail link,” said the LOGOS consortium in a statement.

“The high levels of automation across the intermodals and warehousing will drive significant long-term cost advantages and improve supply chain predictability which will offer important labour efficiency and stock availability,” the consortium said.

“The scale of a logistics site with this range of benefits, within a 30-minute drive of a major global CBD, has not been seen in Australia before,” they said.

LOGOS Head of Australia and New Zealand, Darren Searle, said connectivity, efficiency and intermodal capability are critical components of a pre-eminent logistics site, and no site is better equipped to facilitate market-leading levels of scale and automation than the Moorebank precinct.

“The demand from global and domestic customers for high-quality, larger, automated distribution warehouses and fulfilment centres has continued to grow, and the LOGOS Consortium is delighted to be advancing NSW’s pre-eminent position in the national logistics network through the acquisition of MLP,” Searle said.

Searle also said the supply chain benefits are enormous for the industrial estate’s tenants, with the connectivity between Port Botany, the distribution centre at Moorebank and the warehouses poised to offer great operational savings for importers and exporters.

The site is expected to deliver over $11 billion in economic benefits over 30 years through improved productivity, reduced business costs, reduced growth in congestion and a better environment.

Once the site is fully developed, Moorebank Logistics Park will have an estimated value of $4.2 billion.

The LOGOS Consortium is also set to deploy the largest array of rooftop solar panels on a single site in Australia to power the extensive automation on-site.

“The site benefits extend far beyond just the tenants,” Searle said.

“By 2030, MLP is aiming to reduce Sydney and interstate truck travel by 243,000km per day, and lower carbon emissions by the equivalent of removing 11,000 vehicles from the road for a full year,” he said.

The deal sees LOGOS as the investment and development manager for MLP, while Qube maintains ownership of the intermodal rail terminals.

“We are delighted to announce Qube’s entry into a binding sale agreement with LOGOS, who is an ideal partner for the Moorebank project as they recognise the high quality and significant long-term strategic value of MLP,” said Paul Digney, Managing Director at Qube.

“We are looking forward to partnering with the LOGOS Consortium to realise MLP as Australia’s leading logistics site and to build on the value of the infrastructure that Qube already built at the precinct,” he said.

MLP is the only site in Sydney’s southern corridor able to accommodate built-to-suit warehouses. Anchor tenants Woolworths and Caesarstone Australia have already committed substantial capital to technology and fit-outs.

The transaction is subject to various approvals, including the consent of Moorebank Intermodal Company and FIRB, and is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year,