Gateway Capital chief Investment officer Peter McDonald and chief executive Stuart Dawes.
The shift to multi-level warehousing is taking off across Sydney with major developers building the new style properties in areas where space is tight.
In one of the sector’s most significant moves, Gateway Capital, in partnership with Invesco Real Estate Australia, has won approvals for a multi-level industrial facility in Milperra Rd at Sydney’s Revesby.
The 55,000sq m complex is set across two levels and will become Sydney’s largest multi-level warehouse. It will serve tenants looking to capitalise on the shift towards e-commerce at a time when land is scarce, and customers expect rapid delivery.
Refresco – one of the world’s largest independent beverage solutions providers – has just signed a 10-year prelease for the 25,500sq m ground floor, bringing multiple NSW operations under a single roof and showing the momentum behind multi-level industrial solutions.
The trend has already taken off in cities ranging from Tokyo to Singapore. But its emergence in Australia is more recent. There have been about 100,000sq m of space built in Sydney so far and another 200,000sq m is forecast to complete across 2026 and 2027.
Gateway Capital chief investment officer and co‑founder Peter McDonald said the Revesby project was a defining moment for Sydney’s industrial market.
“Multi‑level facilities are no longer an emerging typology — they are becoming a strategic necessity in land‑constrained markets. At Revesby, we are delivering Sydney’s largest multi‑level warehouse and securing the city’s largest multi‑level leasing deal,” he said.
With Sydney’s industrial vacancy near historic lows and land availability tightening across core precincts, multi-level allowed developers to unlock density without hurting how the facilities worked.
But filling up some projects is proving tough, partly because potential occupiers are yet to adapt to the format. With close to 200,000sq m of multi-level warehousing due for completion in 2026 and 2027 and only 34,000sqm pre-committed, the balance has swung to occupiers who are chasing top warehouse space in key infill locations.
Across the four completed multi-level projects in Sydney, only 55 per cent of the space has been leased, with extended leasing periods required for most developments.
The Revesby development benefited from winning a full-floor, long-term precommitment before building kicked off, showing how much occupiers value larger, well-designed complexes.
Gateway also locked in Refresco as an anchor early in its development while some rivals relied on progressive leasing closer to when their facilities are finished.
Having entered Australia in 2022 with the acquisition of Tru Blu Beverages, Refresco now produces more than 200,000 pallets of product annually for major retailers including Woolworths, Coles and Aldi.
Despite the difficulties that some multi-level facilities have faced, McDonald believes they will become a key part of supply chains.
“This is no longer just about supply and demand. Occupiers and investors now expect industrial assets to contribute to performance, sustainability and resilience. Multi-level is not simply a response to land scarcity – it is a platform for operational excellence,” he said.