The rush to get a foothold into the hectic western suburbs of Sydney has seen a plethora of land being snapped up by developers.
There is more than $3 billion worth of projects and as many cranes in the sky to rival the Sydney CBD.
Parramatta sits at the heart of the area and with the redevelopment of the civic square, more large-scale companies are vying for the limited office space.
According to the latest Property Council of Australia report, office vacancy sits at a record low 5.9 per cent.
Shopping centre giant Scentre Group is looking to add office space to its Westfield Parramatta mall.
The retail landlord has approval for a new level 6 at the mall and is attracting the international labels such as H&M Australia, Zara and Top Shop, among others.
The Western Sydney University is rapidly expanding and also looking for digs for its students.
One new parcel up for sale is a 3000-square-metre site that currently homes the Albion Hotel.
Bruce Solomon's Solotel will retain the pub licence and is likely to relocate to another part of the city.
Solotel has owned the land, which has the pub and parking, for 30 years but is now selling it through Andrew Jolliffe and Jeff Moxham of Ray White, and Anthony Khoury of Khoury Partners.
Mr Moxham said Parramatta is most definitely a hot bed of activity.
"Parramatta is at the top of the list for developers in the market," Mr Moxham said.
"To fully maximise the benefit of the Albion Hotel site, one has to commit to delivering a mixed use site in excess of 26,000 sq m which, upon completion, will be the premium development in the area," Mr Solomon said.
"However the simple fact is that whilst we are very good at some things, we are not developers, and as such it seems sensible to us to move on and allow the experts to create the landmark development the site deserves."
Walker Corporation, Leighton Holdings, Iris Capital, Dyldam, Toplace, Crown and China-based Greenland, Chiwayland and Starryland, have all heavily invested in the Parramatta CBD, and several other tier 1 developers "are still looking to place a stake in the ground", Mr Khoury said
"I have grown up in the area and have seen Parramatta grow from a very small place to a very big city," he said.
"And it is not just the residential market that is drawing wide interest, Parramatta is now also experiencing its lowest office vacancy in history with 6 per cent on all grades. Now also the lowest office vacancy nationally."
Mr Jolliffe, the managing director of Ray White Hotels, believes the George Street site will appeal to hotel and residential developers alike.
"The flexibility afforded by this site is absolutely key for developers, and the combination of riverside positioning, North-east orientation, scale of the land holding and permissible height levels, suggests to us that the interest in acquiring the opportunity will be both aggressive and certainly not restricted to local Australian development groups," Mr Jolliffe said.
"We recently ran a hotel operator selection process for a China-based client of ours, for a mixed-use site they had in Chatswood, and the international interest from recognised hotel operators, developers and investors was profound."
