THE new owners of one of the largest single parcels of industrial-zoned land in Wagga plan to attract businesses that will complement their ecology-friendly approach.
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Wagga consortium Riverina Sustainability Centre has bought the former Riverina Wool Combing site at Bomen.
The 400 hectare site, with 2.1km of frontage to Byrnes Road, includes 65,000 square metres of buildings.
The purchase from Rivco Group Pty Ltd was negotiated through the Wagga office of property consultancy Knight Frank.
"To my knowledge, this is the largest industrial land sale in one line in Wagga for some time," Knight Frank director Jill Toohey said.
"Four hundred hectares is enormous.
"It's good news for Wagga."
Riverina Sustainability Centre directors Chris Egan and Charlie Bannatyne said future plans for the site included providing renewable energy for tenants.
"Plans for the property are to encourage the co-location of businesses that will complement Riverina Sustainability Centre's environmental objectives and, in turn, those of the overall Bomen Business Park as an industrial estate that supports and encourages industrial ecology," Mr Egan said.
"Cleaner production, energy efficiency and value adding to waste management are all principles of industrial ecology and form the basis of the vision for the Riverina Sustainability Centre's future."
Mr Egan said one of the consortium's first priorities was to remediate the former wool combing plant's treatment ponds.
"We'll be using environmentally sustainable methods to remediate the ponds so that the land can be put back into use," Mr Egan said.
Mr Bannatyne said there were no toxic chemicals in the ponds, mainly lanolin and potassium, which were valuable.
Of the 65,000 square metres of buildings, 40 per cent is already leased to several businesses, including Visy, Riverina Oils and Bio Energy, AWH (wool handlers) and Metroll (steel manufacturer and supplier).
Mr Egan said under-roof spaces ranging from 1000 square metres to 26,000 square metres was available for lease at the site for rates of about a third of Sydney prices.
"There is nowhere else in Wagga where you can lease more than 3000 square metres of industrial building space," Mr Egan said.
About 380 hectares of the property is vacant rural land that is zoned industrial.
