The Northern Gateway Precinct sits directly opposite the entrance to Western Sydney International Airport, and its largest project won approval two weeks ago.
Four schemes are live and one collapsed. This article sets out each project, its address, its owner and where it stands.
Written by Daniel Whitfield, founder of Australia Develops, who has personally bought, subdivided, and built property across Australia.
Northern Gateway Precinct 2026 — The Pipeline
Northern Gateway covers 1,120 hectares north of the airport, and planning documents target more than 22,500 jobs and 3,400 homes at full development.
| Site | Developer | Scale | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burrah Park, 280 hectares | IFM Investors and UniSuper | $3.9 billion end value | Approved 16 July 2026 |
| 1953–2109 Elizabeth Drive | DHL Supply Chain | 126,000 square metres, $180 million | Exhibited April to May 2025 |
| Burra Park, 17 hectares | CDC Data Centres | $150 million campus | Land acquired |
| Northern Gateway City, 344 hectares | Boyuan-led consortium | $22 billion, 9,000 dwellings | Did not proceed |
Northern Gateway in numbers
Precinct figures from NSW planning documents. Project values as announced by each developer.
The precinct is one of six initial Aerotropolis precincts, alongside Aerotropolis Core, Badgerys Creek, Wianamatta–South Creek, Agribusiness and Mamre Road.
NSW planning documents name it as the entry and exit to the airport, carrying the M12 motorway and the Metro Greater West rail line.
That position explains the tenant mix. Almost everything approved here so far is freight, logistics or data infrastructure rather than housing.
Where the Projects Sit
Northern Gateway runs north of the airport along Elizabeth Drive and Badgerys Creek Road, about 41 kilometres from the Sydney central business district. The airport itself anchors the whole precinct.
Where the projects sit
NORTH — Mamre Road Precinct and the M4
Schematic layout — relative positions only, not to scale.
The Bradfield Development Authority oversees the surrounding city, and the airport began cargo operations in July 2026, with passenger services due from October 2026. View Badgerys Creek on Google Maps to see the precinct against the road network.
Google Maps shows the roads but not the precinct boundary. For the controls applying to any parcel, the NSW Planning Spatial Viewer is the authoritative source.
PROJECT 1 — Burrah Park, a $3.9 Billion Estate on 280 Hectares
STATUS: APPROVED 16 JULY 2026 — SSD-70316465
IFM Investors and UniSuper won approval on 16 July 2026 for an industrial estate on 280 hectares directly opposite the airport entrance.
The holding is the largest industrial-zoned parcel in the Aerotropolis master plan, and the owners expect an end value above $3.9 billion.
Stage one delivers more than 400,000 square metres of floor space. The owners expect the broader development to yield at least that amount again.
The first stages target more than 400,000 square metres of gross floor area over about seven years, aimed at manufacturing, warehousing and logistics tenants.
In the long run the partners have said the estate could deliver over 800,000 square metres, supported by population growth, e-commerce and the airport precinct.
UniSuper described the holding as distinguished by its scale and by its position inside the Northern Gateway precinct, which is the clearest confirmation of where it sits.
HB+B Property and IFM manage the development and leasing. Richmond Bridge acts in a trustee management role for the joint owners.
The estate will connect directly to the M12 motorway, the airport cargo precinct and future rail infrastructure.
UniSuper and ISPT bought the holding in March 2024 through a 50:50 off-market joint venture worth about $850 million. IFM absorbed ISPT later that year.
Earlier coverage branded the estate Burra Park. The July 2026 approval announcement used the spelling Burrah Park.
PROJECT 2 — DHL’s $180 Million Logistics Precinct on Elizabeth Drive
STATUS: EXHIBITED 22 APRIL TO 19 MAY 2025 — SSD-70818708 AND SSD-70817958
DHL Supply Chain (Australia) proposes four large-format warehouses inside the Burrah Park estate, at 1953 to 2109 Elizabeth Drive.
The department’s own record for the northern buildings places them “within the Burra Park estate”, spelling the name without the h. The two projects therefore sit on the same land, not side by side.
Together the warehouses deliver more than 126,000 square metres of logistics and warehousing floor space on a site of about 25 hectares.
The company designed both facilities for operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which suits an airport freight catchment.
Two separate applications cover the site. SSD-70818708 applies to the southern portion and SSD-70817958 to the northern portion of the DHL master plan.
Both went on public exhibition from 22 April to 19 May 2025. The state assesses and determines them rather than the council.
PROJECT 3 — CDC’s $150 Million Data Centre Campus
STATUS: LAND ACQUIRED, CAMPUS NOT YET DETERMINED
CDC Data Centres paid $150 million for a 17-hectare parcel inside the Burra Park holding at Badgerys Creek.
The company plans a data centre campus there, its second in western Sydney, drawing on the power and fibre routes the Aerotropolis is building out.
Roberts Jones Funds Management sold the parcel as one of several components it carved out of the larger holding before the 2024 sale.
Data centres compete with warehouses for the same flat, well-serviced land seen across Liverpool and the wider corridor, which is why they appear in a precinct planned around freight.
The 3,400-Home Target With Nothing Behind It
Planning documents set Northern Gateway a target of about 3,400 homes across its 1,120 hectares. No residential application sits before the department for the precinct.
Every scheme in the pipeline delivers warehousing, logistics or data centre floor space. Employment land is taking the precinct first, and the housing figure remains a long-run capacity number.
The ownership record explains most of it. IFM, UniSuper, CDC and DHL each secured land here for freight or data use, and none of the four proposed a dwelling.
Anyone checking the precinct for housing should read 3,400 as capacity rather than pipeline. Delivery would need a master plan or a rezoning that nobody has lodged.
The department has not published staging that shows when residential land in Northern Gateway comes forward, or which part of the 1,120 hectares carries it.
Apartment proposals in the Aerotropolis are clustering instead around the Bradfield Metro station, inside the Aerotropolis Core precinct to the south. Bringelly and Leppington carry the corridor’s residential pipeline for now.
PROJECT 4 — The $22 Billion City That Did Not Proceed
STATUS: ABANDONED — ACQUISITION NEVER COMPLETED
In October 2018 a consortium led by ASX-listed Boyuan Holdings released a masterplan for a $22 billion city on 344 hectares at Badgerys Creek.
Its partners were Scentre Group, Western Sydney University, logistics firm LOGOS and neurosurgeon Professor Charlie Teo.
The plan promised a 200,000 square metre Westfield-anchored town centre, an international university campus for 10,000 students and a healthcare hub.
It also proposed 9,000 dwellings, a logistics cluster, a realignment of the M12 motorway and a new underground railway station within the site.
Boyuan lodged a planning proposal with Penrith City Council to fast-track rezoning, and analysis by Urbis put the economic injection at $21.6 billion.
The consortium never completed the acquisition. Roberts Jones Funds Management bought the land in March 2021 instead, and the plan lapsed with it.
The site is now warehouses, a data centre campus and an industrial estate. Comparing the 2018 renderings with the 2026 approvals is the clearest lesson this precinct offers.
How the Land Changed Hands
Almost every project above sits on land that a single family once owned, and the ownership chain explains why the precinct looks the way it does.
Who has owned the land
Sources: NSW ministerial releases, the NSW Planning Portal and property trade coverage.
The Medich family held the original parcel. Roberts Jones assembled it in 2021, then sold components rather than developing the whole.
That break-up is why the precinct now carries separate owners for the warehouses, the data centre and the enterprise estate.
It also explains why no single masterplanned city emerged. Each buyer pursued its own approval on its own timetable, unlike the single-owner model at Oran Park.
The Six Aerotropolis Precincts
Northern Gateway is one of six initial precincts, and each carries its own planning documents rather than a single shared instrument.
| Precinct | Role |
|---|---|
| Aerotropolis Core | Bradfield city centre, commercial and mixed use |
| Badgerys Creek | Enterprise and industry beside the airport |
| Wianamatta–South Creek | Drainage corridor and open space |
| Agribusiness | Food, freight and intensive production, Precinct Plan finalised 24 March 2022 |
| Northern Gateway | Airport entry, logistics, industry and 3,400 homes |
| Mamre Road | 850 hectares of industrial land, rezoned 11 June 2020 |
That structure matters for anyone tracking a specific site, because the controls and the approval pathway differ between precincts.
The Infrastructure the Precinct Depends On
Every project above assumes road and rail the state has not finished building, and the approvals reference that infrastructure directly.
The M12 motorway and Metro Greater West both run through the precinct, connecting the airport to the M7 and to the wider rail network.
Burrah Park’s approval cites direct access to the M12, the airport cargo precinct and future rail as a defining feature of the estate.
Elizabeth Drive carries the existing traffic. The DHL site fronts it between numbers 1953 and 2109, north of the runway.
The cargo precinct explains why freight tenants arrived first. Cargo flights began in July 2026, ahead of passenger services in October.
Power and fibre capacity matter as much as roads for the data centre component, and the Aerotropolis build-out is delivering both.
The 2018 consortium asked for an M12 realignment and a new underground station inside its own site. Neither request survived the sale.
What Has Not Been Confirmed
Three of the schemes above remain undetermined, and the precinct job and housing targets describe full build-out rather than the current pipeline.
Approved
Burrah Park industrial estate, 16 July 2026
The airport itself, operating from July 2026
Not yet determined
DHL’s four warehouses under two SSD applications
CDC’s data centre campus
The 3,400-home target across 1,120 hectares
DHL’s two applications closed exhibition in May 2025. No determination had followed by mid-2026.
CDC has bought its land but no campus approval had been published, so the timing and scale of the data centre remain open.
The 3,400-home target sits in planning documents. The pipeline holds one residential proposal, and the department has not determined it.
Precinct job and home targets come from planning documents rather than from lodged applications. They move with tenant demand.
The NSW major projects register publishes the application number, stage and exhibition dates for every state significant proposal in the precinct.
Project Status and Delivery Timing
| Project | Scale | Value | Stage | Decided by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burrah Park | 280 ha | $3.9 billion | Approved 16 July 2026 | NSW Government |
| DHL Elizabeth Drive | 126,000 sq m | $180 million | Exhibited 2025 | Department of Planning |
| CDC data centre | 17 ha | $150 million | Land acquired | Yet to be lodged |
| Northern Gateway City | 344 ha | $22 billion | Did not proceed | — |
Summary
Northern Gateway is developing as freight and industry land, not as the mixed-use city its 2018 masterplan promised.
The largest approval landed on 16 July 2026, when IFM and UniSuper cleared Burrah Park at an end value above $3.9 billion.
Against a target of 3,400 homes, the pipeline holds a single residential proposal of 401 apartments at an early planning stage.
The land ownership chain explains the outcome. One family’s holding broke into separate parcels, and each buyer pursued its own approval.
Where is the Northern Gateway Precinct?
It covers 1,120 hectares north of Western Sydney International Airport at Badgerys Creek, about 41 kilometres from the Sydney central business district.
What is being built in the Northern Gateway Precinct?
Mostly freight and industry. Approved and proposed projects include a $3.9 billion industrial estate, four DHL warehouses, a data centre campus and one residential scheme of 401 apartments.
How many homes will the Northern Gateway Precinct have?
Planning documents target 3,400 homes at full development, but only one residential proposal of 401 apartments had reached the department by mid-2026.
What happened to the $22 billion Northern Gateway City plan?
The Boyuan-led consortium released a masterplan in October 2018 but never completed the acquisition. Roberts Jones Funds Management bought the land in March 2021 and the plan lapsed.
This article is general information only and is not financial, legal or planning advice. See the Disclaimer for details.
