QR National will more than double its stake in Moorebank Industrial Property Trust for $41 million.
Meanwhile, the armed forces explained its position on the site, which it presently has two lease extensions on, at last week’s Australian Logistics Association Forum in Sydney.
By Rob McKay | April 3, 2012
QR National will more than double its stake in Moorebank Industrial Property Trust for $41 million.
The Trust controls the 83 hectare site on which the proposed Qube Logistics-led Sydney Intermodal Terminal Alliance (Simta) proposes to build its Port Botany and interstate rail network-linked, 1 million teu a year intermodal hub.
QR will have 33 percent of the consortium and Qube the rest once both have exercised pre-emptive rights to buy Stockland’s divested stake.
Meanwhile, the armed forces explained its position on the site, which it presently has two lease extensions on, at last week’s Australian Logistics Council Forum in Sydney.
Having been subject to various comments about the Department of Defence’s treatment of Moorebank negotiations, Air Vice-Marshal and Joint Logistics Commander Margaret Staib made her position crystal clear.
Noting that she was in charge of supporting 5,500 personnel on 14 operations internationally with supplies consolidated at the western Sydney site, Staib insists that their needs are paramount.
“I cannot afford to have any interruption to our operations,” she tells the ALC Forum in Sydney.
Staib also gave some much-needed context, saying Moorebank is part of a $2.4 billion transformation of Defence logistics and that her office was half way through the design element of aspects related to the Simta project.
Once approval was gained, expected in November, new facilities could be built, with completion, “all things being equal”, by the end of 2014.
“I am moving as fast as I can but I can’t bend the laws of physics,” Staib says.
Her office has been in long-term negotiations with the Simta about it progressively moving to the site before the deadline but this would depend on Defence’s operational priorities.
