The Goodman Group is looking to invest $1.4 billion in redeveloping the site of the former ABC television studios in Artarmon into a major data centre. The site hosted the ABC’s Sydney headquarters as well as its principal transmission tower since its opening and first television broadcast in November 1956. Goodman paid just under $95 million for the site in July 2022,.
The development process is planned to include the demolition of the developments already on the site which Goodman’s Head of Planning, Guy Smith sees as “not fit for purpose for market requirements.”
Currently, Goodman Property Services (Aust) are looking at the industry-specific Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements as issued in January by the NSW Government and are preparing an Environmental Impact Statement for submission to the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment.
The proposed development for the 1.4ha site is a seven-storey data centre (52 metres high) together with offices and parking to be located at 2-8 Lanceley Place and 14 Campbell Street, Artarmon. Bulk excavation would need to be undertaken before work on the data centre itself would commence.
Smith notes the “booming demand” for data centres and hyperscale facilities based on “cloud data storage, enterprise uses and AI (artificial intelligence).”
The facility would use 80MVA of electricity and the site is located close to other data centres operated by NEXTDC and Keppel Data Centres in the Gore Hill Technology Park.
The proposal represents a further step in Goodman’s plans to increase its data centre asset base to meet the “high demand typology” for data centre services. At the company’s AGM in November, Chief Executive Greg Goodman stated that the company had a global “power bank” of 3.7 GW of which 2 GW had been secured and the remainder he described as “in advanced stages”.
The Goodman initiative adds another piece to Australia’s very strong ongoing data centre investment activity.
