At a glance
A proposed data centre at 16-20 Mars Road, Lane Cove West, has been withdrawn from the NSW Investment Delivery Authority, local outlet In the Cove reported on 20 October 2026, just under seven months after the authority endorsed it.
The proposal was an expression of interest from two landholders, Ford Land Company and Aurora Property Partnership, and never reached the NSW planning system.
It is the only withdrawal among the 14 data centres the NSW Government named on 27 March 2026. A 15th endorsed project was not named for commercial reasons.
Three of the named projects now hold NSW consent: Amazon's Glendenning campus, Microsoft's Honeman Close data centre and the first phase of NEXTDC's S4, which is under construction.
Five more are in assessment, among them 1GW at Mamre Road, 500MVA at Goodman's Project Atlas and 450MW at STACK's Erskine Park site.
On 27 March 2026 the NSW Government picked 15 data centre projects worth a combined A$51.9 billion for its Investment Delivery Authority, the state body that coordinates government agencies to speed up large private investments. It named 14 of them and declined about A$40.7 billion of other data centre and technology proposals as premature or overly speculative. Just under seven months on, the first project has left that list.
Of the 14 named projects, three hold consent, five are in assessment, five are being prepared for lodgement and one, the Lane Cove West proposal, has been withdrawn before it was ever lodged, according to the NSW Planning Portal on 21 October 2026 and the proponents' own disclosures.
Two Lane Cove West landholders withdraw their proposal
The authority endorsed the Lane Cove proposal under the name Lane Cove DC Alliance, a project name the proponents chose. Documents obtained by In the Cove under NSW freedom of information law name the proponents as Ford Land Company, which manages 16 Mars Road, and Aurora Property Partnership, which owns 18-20 Mars Road. Aurora, a property business within the Ausgrid Group, buys, holds and sells land, including sites Ausgrid no longer needs for its electricity network.
Aurora told In the Cove the joint proposal "was in the early scoping phase but the proponents elected not to proceed for commercial reasons", and that no development application was lodged. Ford Land said it has no current or future plans for a data centre on its site at this time. Aurora is selling 18-20 Mars Road on the open market and is seeking a rezoning to general industrial through Lane Cove Council, the zoning of the surrounding business park. An authority spokesperson confirmed it received a withdrawal notice.
The site is separate from Goodman's Project Mars at 12 Mars Road, which Goodman withdrew in September and which was not on the authority's list.
Amazon, Microsoft and NEXTDC hold NSW consent
Two of the endorsed projects have been approved since March, both on applications lodged well before the endorsement. Amazon's Glendenning Road campus in Blacktown, lodged by planning consultancy Lehr Consultants International, was approved on 14 September 2026 at a power consumption of 202.4MW, across three five-storey buildings. Blacktown City Council made a submission on the environmental impact statement, and the application costs the campus at A$2.17 billion.
Microsoft's Honeman Close data centre at Huntingwood, a 96MW building, followed on 1 October 2026. Its consent requires Microsoft to match the site's electricity demand with additional, firmed NSW renewable supply at all times, a condition set after the planning department weighed the NSW data centre guidelines of 17 August. The same renewable supply condition sits in Stockland's Road 1 consent at Macquarie Park, issued the same day, and Goodman's Project Apollo consent of 2 September. A federal environment assessment of Huntingwood continues separately.
NEXTDC's S4 at Horsley Park won consent on 24 December 2025 for six buildings with an operational capacity of 250MW, three months before the endorsement. NEXTDC's FY26 results presentation on 27 August reported "first slab on ground" and lifted S4's planned total to about 365MW. A second phase, two buildings with a maximum power consumption of 134.4MW on the planning measure, is on exhibition from 13 October to 10 November 2026.
Five projects are in assessment, led by 1GW at Mamre Road
The Mamre Road Data Centre Campus at Kemps Creek, lodged by KNBDC SYD4, is the largest of the named projects, at a power capacity of 1GW across six four-storey buildings. Its amended application moved into assessment on the planning portal by 21 October 2026, with the proponent's response to the issues raised during exhibition lodged.
Goodman's Project Atlas, a 500MVA data centre at 10 Roberts Road, Eastern Creek, is in assessment with more information requested, and Goodman is seeking a tenant for the existing warehouse on the site from early 2027 while it waits on a grid connection date. STACK Infrastructure's SYD01 at 78 Lockwood Road, Erskine Park, a 450MW data centre, sits at the same stage.
GreenSquareDC's SYD1 Stage 2 at Norwest is at the response to submissions stage, days after the first stage of SYD1 opened on 19 October. NEXTDC S5 at Macquarie Park, its Data Centre and Innovation Hub, is in assessment with more information requested; NEXTDC lists it at about 80MW and expects early works in FY27.
Project and proponent | Council area | Status, 21 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
Amazon, Glendenning Road Data Centre | Blacktown | Approved 14 September 2026 |
Microsoft, Honeman Close Data Centre | Blacktown | Approved 1 October 2026 |
NEXTDC, S4 Data Centre | Fairfield | Approved 24 December 2025, under construction; second phase on exhibition |
KNBDC SYD4, Mamre Road Data Centre Campus | Penrith | In assessment, response to submissions lodged |
GreenSquareDC, SYD1 Stage 2 | The Hills | Response to submissions |
Goodman, Project Atlas | Blacktown | In assessment, more information requested |
STACK Infrastructure, SYD01, 78 Lockwood Road | Penrith | In assessment, more information requested |
NEXTDC, S5 Data Centre and Innovation Hub | Ryde | In assessment, more information requested |
NEXTDC, S7 Data Centre Eastern Creek | Blacktown | Preparing environmental impact statement |
Stockland and Fife, Kemps Creek | Penrith | Seeking amended assessment requirements |
Stockland, Wetherill Park | Fairfield | Pre-application lodged |
Stockland, Project A | Ryde | Planning |
AIMS APAC REIT, Bella Vista Data Centre Campus | The Hills | No application lodged |
Lane Cove DC Alliance, 16-20 Mars Road | Lane Cove | Withdrawn before lodgement |
Source: NSW Government, 27 March 2026; NSW Planning Portal major project pages, read 21 October 2026; Stockland 1Q27 operational update, 19 October 2026; In the Cove, 20 October 2026. Approved and assessment projects are state significant development applications.
NEXTDC's 612MW S7 heads the projects still being prepared
NEXTDC S7 at Eastern Creek holds the planning secretary's environmental assessment requirements, the brief for its environmental impact statement, for a 612MW data centre in three two-storey buildings, a project NEXTDC lists at about 550MW. Stockland's joint venture with Fife Capital at 90 Aldington Road, Kemps Creek, is seeking amended environmental assessment requirements for a data centre of 168MW on its April filing and a 1GW substation.
Stockland's other two endorsed sites, an existing logistics site at Wetherill Park and an existing workplace building at Macquarie Park it holds 51 per cent of, are at pre-application and planning stages respectively, according to its 1Q27 operational update of 19 October. A Stockland spokesperson told trade publication W.Media in March that the authority "presents a significant opportunity for Stockland to leverage its operating footprint". Singapore-listed AIMS APAC REIT, which holds the Macquarie Park building with Stockland, said in a 7 May release that the endorsement of that site and its Bella Vista business park "recognises the strategic location and infrastructure attributes of both sites". No planning application has been lodged for Bella Vista.
The next approvals sit with projects in assessment
Both consents issued since March went to applications lodged well before the endorsement, Honeman Close by early 2024 and Glendenning by mid-2025. On that sequence the next approvals on the list are likeliest to come from the five projects in assessment, led by 1GW at Mamre Road, while S7, Kemps Creek and the Stockland and AIMS sites still have exhibition ahead of them. The Lane Cove withdrawal removes a landholder proposal that never reached that system, and none of the 13 other named projects has left the list. The wider Sydney build is tracked on the Sydney data centre map and in data centres in Western Sydney.
What to watch
The authority's published list. The Investment Delivery Authority projects page still lists the Lane Cove Data Centre. Removing it would leave 13 named data centre projects on the page.
The S4 second phase. Exhibition of NEXTDC's 134.4MW second phase at Horsley Park closes on 10 November 2026.
A decision on Mamre Road. At 1GW, Mamre Road would be the largest consent on the list.
What happens at 18-20 Mars Road. Aurora is selling the site with a rezoning to general industrial under way through Lane Cove Council.