Toll Group has officially broken ground with ESR Australia at its Westlink Industry Park in Kemps Creek, marking a significant milestone for the next-generation custom built retail distribution and fulfilment facility.
The groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Mayor of Penrith, Todd Carney, CEO of ESR Australia Phil Pearce and Toll Group President of Retail and Consumer Nick Vrckovski.
According to Pearce, the ceremony was the beginning of something big for both ESR Australia and Toll Group.
“Today’s groundbreaking ceremony is a significant milestone in ESR Australia’s partnership with Toll Group here in the Mamre Road precinct,” he said.
“It symbolises the commencement of our ambitions for Westlink Industry Park of connecting businesses to the Australian market.”
The site spans 10.8ha, and will comprise a 68,000sqm retail distribution and fulfilment facility, which will also include office space and ancillary amenities with a 300-space multi-deck car park.
“Westlink represents the largest development for ESR Australia in New South Wales to date, with a combined investment of $450 million for the project’s delivery, underlining our belief in the growing and highly connected region,” Pearce said.
In particular, the state-of-the-art warehousing and distribution facility will feature $75 million of highly specialised advanced automation technology, and a storage capacity of close to one million cartons, ensuring that it will be able to meet its expectations of dispatching 37 million items each year.
“Toll and ESR Australia are aligned in their commitment to providing customers with seamless logistics offerings to support their future needs as a business, which will be achieved at Westlink through automated systems and high-quality infrastructure,” he said.
Once complete, the project will provide jobs for over 200 Toll workers, with over 300 construction jobs also created for locals throughout the development’s construction.
Carney congratulated ESR and Toll Group on the groundbreaking milestone achieved at last week’s ceremony, and expressed his excitement for the new facility to have found a home in the Penrith Local Government Area for many years to come.
“Penrith City Council is thrilled to have leading businesses seeing the value and potential of this City, and choosing to invest in our booming region,” he said.
“By collaborating with key stakeholders, we continue to drive productivity and innovation in a growing employment precinct that offers new opportunities and will cater for current and future generations.”
Cassidy Pearce is a news and entertainment journalist with The Western Weekender. A graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, she has previously worked with Good Morning Macarthur and joined the Weekender in 2022.
