North Sydney’s Jilly Gibson pitching for EUAs, Nightlife & Art
North Sydney has thrown down the gauntlet to its big sister over the bridge. It’s pitching to be part of
the annual Vivid LIVE festival in May and early June. It wants better nightlife and it’s already renamed
a plaza after one of its favourite sons: artist Brett Whiteley.
According to newly elected Mayor Jilly Gibson, North Sydney may soon also have a spate of upgraded and more valuable commercial buildings, thanks to the city’s embrace of the Environmental Upgrade Agreement finance schemes. It wants to have EUA exemplar projects up and running by the end of
this year.
The schemes, which finance environmental upgrades to buildings through energy savings, with repayments managed through charges on local council rates, are spreading rapidly through New South Wales’ local government councils. The City of Sydney launched its first EUA recently with a $26.5 million commitment at the Frasers Property-Sekisui House development at Central Park, Broadway. Parramatta City Council is on board; so is Lake Macquarie and now, North Sydney. Soon joining the program will be Newcastle, Penrith and Wollongong councils. Continue reading
Strategic Asset Management
Property owners are now emerging from survival mode and searching for opportunities.
One of the first steps is evaluation and gaining a better understanding of their existing portfolios, to make the best of what they’ve got – given constraints on availability of finance. Typically the portfolios are older, B grade and ripe for opportunity.
Strategic Asset Planning provides short, medium and long term views on minimising cost, managing risk and maximising returns through continued due diligence.
There is a positive trend towards this approach starting with understanding baseline data in terms of condition, performance and environmental and regulatory compliance in such a way that is cost effective, meaningful, useable and enduring. It is vital to know what data needs to be collected and how it should be best used and managed for maximum effect. Continue reading
