Sydney Sandstone Buildings to be Sold to Boost Tourism

Sydney's landmark Sandstone Buildings in the CBD will be set aside for tourism purposes when they are marketed to local and international investors later this year.

The tourism industry will be invited to register their interest in the Education and former Lands Buildings on Bridge Street as part of the NSW Government's commitment to increase the state's overnight visitor expenditure.

"We will be engaging a broad range of local and international parties who have the capacity to deliver world-class facilities and accommodation," Minister for Finance and Services Andrew Constance said.

"This approach will create jobs, drive global tourism opportunities and boost the NSW economy.

"The sale of the Sandstone Buildings for tourism purposes will support the NSW Visitor Economy Taskforce, which has a goal to increase our overnight visitor expenditure from $18.3 billion in 2009 to $36.6 billion by 2020.

"Interest in these buildings is already strong - they have the potential for a range of high value tourism uses, are centrally located in the business district, close to Circular Quay and all transport services.

"Tourism industry research indicates that foreign investors have a strong preference for Sydney's CBD as their entry point to Australia for investment.

"As part of the Registration of Interest stage, we will invite interested parties to provide details of their intended tourism use for the Sandstone Buildings. That will be used to form a detailed Expression of Interest phase in the New Year."

The Registration of Interest will be released by Macquarie Capital before Christmas. This initial stage will help potential buyers in the market prepare for the formal Expressions of Interest phase. An Expression of Interest campaign has already begun for the sale of the Ausgrid Building at 570 George Street.

In May this year, the NSW Government completed the sale of seven state-owned buildings in Sydney and regional NSW to Australian-based company, Cromwell. The sale figure of more than $400 million exceeded initial estimates by $100 million.

Mr Constance said the divestment of non-core government assets is unlocking latent capital to boost much-needed infrastructure and fund other essential services for taxpayers across NSW.

"We will continue to identify assets suitable for divestment, returning sale proceeds to NSW taxpayers to fund more services and to drive the state's economic growth," Mr Constance said.