Gateway Acquires Strategic Villawood Site

Gateway Capital has acquired a prized $330 million logistics estate in Villawood, Sydney in partnership with Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and an Asian Sovereign Wealth Fund – the largest such deal in that market in more than five years.

Connect Central Sydney is a 12.6-hectare site at 2 Christina Road, Villawood. Spanning more than 69,000 square metres across 12 buildings, with individual spaces ranging from 2000 to 18,000 square metres, it has a focus on last-mile storage facilities.

The asset, which is 75 per cent leased, has a strong tenant cohort including Kerry Logistics, Honest to Goodness, Scope Joinery, Ricky Richards, FJT Logistics, Seima, Austway and Euro Car Parts.

The sprawling estate will be held in the Gateway Capital Urban Logistics Partnership, a fund that has expanded rapidly to $850 million in less than 20 months.

Gateway Capital chief executive and founder Stuart Dawes said the acquisition gave the partnership a position in the Sydney market close to major transport networks. Dawes said the fund aims to grow past $1.7 billion, with its demand for logistics properties backed by population growth and the demand for e-commerce.

“We’ve got capacity to seek more logistics assets with a view to double the size of the existing portfolio,” Dawes said.