But will not affect the $2 billion Parramatta Square development as feared.
CBA was set to be an anchor tenant in Parramatta’s premier CBD development, as a drawcard for other big businesses and government agencies but has decided to close its Parramatta, Olympic Park and Lidcombe offices in favour of the Mirvac-developed ATP.
But their pull-out has not fazed the council or the square’s developer Walker Corporation as there are other companies clamouring to take CBA’s place.
A Walker spokesman said “three or four” businesses were anxious to be part of Parramatta Square, squashing initial fears in the business community that CBA’s defection would hamper the long-awaited development.
Parramatta Council, which knew that CBA was bidding for the ATP project, had decided “some time ago” to forge ahead with the Parramatta Square development irrespective of the bank’s involvement, confident that Walker Corporation will find other tenants.
Nonetheless, Lord Mayor Paul Garrard has joined other leading voices in expressing disappointment at CBA’s decision to close down its Parramatta and Olympic Park office in favour of ATP.
Professor Phillip O'Neill from Western Sydney University has laid the blame at the feet of the State Government, as ATP is an UrbanGrowth project.
"It is very disappointing that you have a government property developer enticing jobs out of Western Sydney at a time when government policy and the rhetoric of major government figures has been to promote jobs growth in western Sydney," Prof O'Neill said.
Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue chairman Christopher Brown said the move of 7000 jobs would leave the bank with a "trashed reputation" in Western Sydney.
Western Sydney chairman of Sydney Business Chamber David Borger said Western Sydney desperately needed “smart jobs” as well and said he could not believe CBA’s decision to abandon the west, particularly the Parramatta Square project.
CBA’s chief financial officer David Craig said the "office campus" would host its largest number of employees ever accommodated at a single site when it was completed in 2020.
"Moving to the transformed Australian Technology Park will put 10,000 of our people in the heart of a growing technology hub, providing us with a significant opportunity to partner and collaborate with universities, start-ups and other innovative companies," Mr Craig said.
But, amid all the uproar, NSW Premier Mike Baird played it cool, throwing his hands up as he delivered political rhetoric.
“The NSW Government has no control over the commercial decisions of companies,” Mr Baird said in a statement to WSBA.
“The best thing we can do to create jobs is to deliver strong economic growth and, through our hard work, NSW is once again leading the nation. Our record infrastructure program also means a jobs boom, particularly for Western Sydney. Last month’s job figures once again confirmed NSW leads the pack in terms of jobs growth, recording the lowest unemployment rate of all states.”
“Since coming to office we have created over 74,700 jobs in Western Sydney.” The question is - how many of those jobs were the “smart jobs” of the future?
