Developers Frasers Property and Sekisui House have signed a $2 billion mixed-use development agreement to provide funding for green energy infrastructure at Central Park.
The $26.5 million Environmental Upgrade Agreement (EUA) provides long-term low-cost finance for environmental infrastructure. Central Park’s EUA is only the second such agreement to be signed in NSW and is the City of Sydney’s first EUA.
The EUA was signed by the City of Sydney, landowner Frasers Property, and Eureka Funds Management as trustee of The Australian Environmental Upgrade Fund No2 (TAEUF), a fund established specifically for this EUA, with funds from ANZ and Low Carbon Australia.
The finance documents were signed by the landowner and Central Park’s joint venture developers, Frasers Property Australia and Sekisui House Australia.
The EUA funding provides for the construction of a central thermal and tri-generation electrical plant, which uses low-emission natural gas engines to produce thermal and electrical energy.
The system efficiently uses the bi-products of energy generation (hot and cold water) to provide centrally reticulated heating and cooling for air and water, for use throughout the precinct.
Located underground beneath the historic ‘Brewery Yard’ building, the tri-generation plant will deliver electricity to the site’s historic buildings, and has the potential to be exported to neighbouring buildings offsite.
The tri-generation plant was approved by the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure in February 2012, with a subsequent modification approved in May 2012.
Frasers Property and Sekisui House are currently seeking Expressions of Interest for an owner/operator of the tri-generation plant, with the owner/operator to be in place prior to the commissioning of the plant, in late 2013.
