It's full-steam ahead for a business-focused development near Westdale which is already paying dividends for the local council.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
At Tamworth Regional Council's (TRC) latest meeting, councillors voted to progress with the next stage of the Sydney CBD-sized Global Gateway Park development, a multi-million dollar industrial precinct which has already caught the eyes of international investors.
Land sales in the first phase of development are set to rake in more than $14 million in revenue for TRC, which councillor Brooke Southwell said is very good news for the cash-strapped council currently considering a special rate variation.
"Part of the reason the prior council went down this track with this project is because council has a very limited ability to raise funds ... the funding from each of these stages is going forward for the next stage and the next after that and it's also bringing huge economic benefits to our region," Cr Southwell said.
![Burke and Smyth managing director Gavin Knee has been helping Tamworth Regional Council develop and sell the land in Tamworth's Global Gateway Park for more than three years and says the project just keeps building steam. Pictures by Peter Hardin Burke and Smyth managing director Gavin Knee has been helping Tamworth Regional Council develop and sell the land in Tamworth's Global Gateway Park for more than three years and says the project just keeps building steam. Pictures by Peter Hardin](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/200003594/41f90be7-73ea-4ded-acff-9b84cdd7454f.jpg/r0_0_1200_675_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Burke and Smyth managing director Gavin Knee, who has been working with TRC to sell the land to businesses for more than three years now, said the level of interest continues to be strong as they move into the next stages of development.
"It's still building nicely. It's more of a normal market we're in now but certainly from the first three stages there's only a couple of lots left from the first 25 blocks," Mr Knee said.
Strategically located next to the Tamworth Regional Airport and the newly-built intermodal freight hub, Mr Knee said the land has attracted a wide variety of businesses, from tractor manufacturers to industrial logistics companies.
"We've got everything from manufacturing, industrial warehouses, and ag machinery," he said.
"Building on that demand, there's also some heavy industrial interest next to the Intermodal Freight Facility as well as some mixed-use business lots."
As council moves forward with the development, Mr Knee says he'll have another 20 to 30 lots to get market-ready, which can take a lot of time to register, develop, and get Development Applications approved.
![Burke and Smyth's Meagan Palombo and Gavin Knee overlooking plans for the Global Gateway Park's development. Picture by Peter Hardin Burke and Smyth's Meagan Palombo and Gavin Knee overlooking plans for the Global Gateway Park's development. Picture by Peter Hardin](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/200003594/5495989d-eab8-4075-8327-dc7e52af0826.jpg/r0_0_7246_4831_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"That's the challenge, but I think Tamworth's going quite well in that space, and we're looking forward to seeing the first trains rolling out of the new intermodal. Once that starts it'll convince some larger businesses from the city to access the benefits of cheaper land and to trade and get their product to Newcastle port," he said.
"We're really looking forward to the next 12 months when some of these big, big businesses start construction. It'll be exciting to see those sheds go up."
Council bought the 246-hectare parcel of land for the business precinct in 2016, with the first ideas for the project dating back all the way to 2013.
"It was a very tough decision at the time because it was a quite bit of money, but it's certainly something that's paying off now and will continue to pay off for the next 10 or 20 years," Tamworth mayor Russell Webb said at council's latest meeting.
READ ALSO:
Despite multiple planning delays, Cr Webb and Cr Phil Betts - who were both on the council that came up with the idea almost ten years ago - lauded the Global Gateway Park as a huge success for the region.
"One of the other reasons council did purchase that land is to have control over where things are going to develop. We had a strategic plan so that it didn't become a hodge-podge development process," Cr Betts said.
In addition, councillors voted to approve the names 'Dhulii' Drive and 'Gilaa' Circuit for two new roads going into the development, keeping to a theme of giving every street an Indigenous name for a native animal.
'Dhulii' is Gomeroi for sand goanna and 'Gilaa' means galah.
Other names being held in reserve for future streets include 'Bigibila' (echinda), 'Burrugaabu' (magpie), and 'Nhurraay' (black snake).
Cr Marc Sutherland said these names may be unfamiliar to some Tamworthians at first, but will quickly become cultural mainstays like Goonoo Goonoo Road and Cockburn Street.
"Some of the language that we use on a daily basis, as in for the name of that bird galah, stems from our Gomeroi language, a language spoken here locally. To give that credit and recognition is fantastic," Cr Sutherland.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark northerndailyleader.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News