Macquarie to buy Sydney site for campus & data centre

Macquarie Data Centres has agreed to buy a Sydney site for AUD $240 million to build an engineering and technology campus and a roughly 200-megawatt data centre in Macquarie Park, in the city's North Zone.

The site covers about 34,200 square metres between Talavera Road and the M2 motorway. Macquarie has exercised an option to buy the light industrial parcel, with completion subject to standard settlement procedures.

Macquarie plans to develop the site as a combined education and data centre campus in partnership with Macquarie University. The arrangement is expected to give students and researchers practical access to data centre, cyber security, AI and cloud technologies through work on the campus.

The proposed facility remains at the design stage and is subject to planning and other approvals. Initial construction is expected to be completed in 2029, with designs to be refined around customer requirements and power approvals.

Campus plans

The campus would sit within one of Sydney's established technology corridors, with dense fibre connections and a concentration of industrial and technology activity. Macquarie plans to continue its campus-style approach, combining commercial infrastructure with education and community uses.

The data centre is intended to use advanced air-cooling and closed-loop systems for primary heat rejection to limit water consumption. The design is also being prepared to support both direct-to-chip liquid cooling and air cooling inside the data halls, reflecting demand for facilities that can handle denser computing workloads.

The project comes amid continued expansion by data centre operators in Australia as demand rises from cloud providers, AI-related computing and government customers. Sydney remains a focal point for development because of its network connectivity, customer concentration and role as the country's main data centre market.

The campus would also include community features on part of the site, including a park of more than one acre, a community garden and an outdoor art gallery. The gallery is intended to display work from local residents, Macquarie University students and faculty, as well as material linked to local history and connection to country.

Macquarie said the park would transform a neglected part of the industrial site into a space for City of Ryde residents. It described the area as an intergenerational park with recreational and community-use areas.

University link

The development builds on Macquarie Technology Group's partnership with Macquarie University. The link is intended to create pathways for students and academics to gain direct industry experience in technology and engineering through work connected to the new campus.

Macquarie Data Centres operates three data centre campuses, two in Sydney and one in Canberra. The business said its facilities are certified strategic by the Australian federal government and that it has been part of the Macquarie Park community for 16 years.

It also said it has supported local programmes in early childhood literacy, career planning for high school students and graduate pathways. Those activities form part of its case for the project's broader local role beyond the planned data centre build.

Commenting on the development, David Hirst, Chief Executive Officer of Macquarie Data Centres, said: "Alongside the ~200MW of Australian-owned and operated data centre this will deliver to Sydney's north zone, the proposed campus will also deliver lasting benefit to the local community. In partnership with Macquarie University, students and researchers will gain hands-on access to the latest data centre, cyber security and cloud technologies. It will also provide a more than one-acre sized intergenerational community park for City of Ryde residents."