University goes high rise

The move has already begun with the opening this year of the university’s Parramatta CBD campus in a new 14-level, 26,500 square metre building which will be used to teach 10,000 students, mainly in the school of business.

The university also has projects under way to move into new buildings in Liverpool and Bankstown in the next few years that will together hold 15,000 students.

“We want to be closer to CBDs, we want to be involved with business and industry and government,” said WSU vice-chancellor Barney Glover.

“We wanted a building embedded in the heart of the biggest urban regeneration project in Australia, the multi-billion regeneration of Parramatta.”

Professor Glover dismissed fears that the high-rise campus would make it hard for large numbers of people to circulate when classes were beginning and ending. He said the teaching floors were linked by stairs as well as lifts.

WSU’s new building, called 1PSQ, is part of the $2 billion Parramatta Square development. Professor Glover said its high-quality fitout, with study and learning spaces for students, would be emulated in the two new buildings in Liverpool and Bankstown.

Being in this location means absorbing the higher cost for property in business districts, compared to where most universities are located away from major business centres.

No other university in Australia leases, or is planning to lease, property for its core teaching function on the scale of WSU. Universities traditionally have maintained campuses which they own, most of them originally gifted by government.

And many university buildings, with specialist features such as laboratories and lecture theatres, are not attractive for property companies to own and are located on campuses away from business areas.

But Professor Glover said that the leasing plan made sense for his university which wanted a major presence in the business districts of western Sydney, near public transport hubs.

“We felt, when we looked at the numbers, that leasing – and having someone else own, maintain and operate the building – was a very efficient way of doing it, particularly where we can sublet space to partners at a premium which helps us with the overall cash flow of the project,” he said.

Four levels of the Parramatta building have been sub-leased to PwC and three more to WaterNSW.

WSU leases the Parramatta building from its owner, property group Charter Hall, which says it is looking for more university projects to be involved in.

The groups head of office development services, Andrew Borger, said that university tenants were attractive because they wanted large spaces, they were “sticky tenants” likely to stay for a long period, and were comparable to government from a risk point of view.

Mr Borger acknowledged that office buildings like 1PSQ were not suitable for all fields of teaching. Science, medicine and health needed specialist buildings.

“But for the majority of classes, which are not bespoke, there are significant benefits,” he said.

Liverpool next

Professor Glover said the universities next leased campus in Liverpool was already under construction and was owned by a local law firm. The third will be in Bankstown, near the new Sydney Metro station, and the university is still exploring options for that building.

Professor Glover said that WSU would recoup capital by restructuring some of its existing campuses. It will sell part of its Westmead campus and redevelop the rest with a partner to house mainly health and medical research, taking advantage of its position next to Westmead hospital.