At a Glance
- On 27 March 2026, the Investment Delivery Authority (IDA) endorsed a data centre proposal at 16–20 Mars Road, Lane Cove West, listing the proponent as Lane Cove DC Alliance.
- Documents obtained by In the Cove under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 show the proponents were Ford Land Company and Aurora Property Partnership, a related entity of Ausgrid.
- The proposal has been withdrawn. Ford Land and Aurora have both said they have no plans to develop a data centre at their sites. This is now two proposed data centres that will not be going ahead at the Lane Cove West Business Park. AirTrunk the only operator currently pursuing Data Centre Planning Approval
- Aurora has put 18–20 Mars Road on the market for sale, with a proposed pathway to E4 General Industrial zoning.
- As of 20 October 2026, the IDA’s published list of supported projects still included the Lane Cove Data Centre.
On 27 March 2026, the Investment Delivery Authority (IDA) endorsed a data centre proposal listing the proponent as Lane Cove DC Alliance (an entity that was not a registered business name or company).
In the Cove has been advised that the Lane Cove DC Alliance has withdrawn its proposal to develop a data centre at 16–20 Mars Road, Lane Cove West.
The proposal for 16-20 Mars Road was put forward by Ford Land Company and Aurora Property Partnership (Aurora), a related entity of Ausgrid, the electricity distributor that provides connections and substations that power some of Sydney’s data centres.
Their identities were revealed in documents obtained by In the Cove under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009.
Ford Land has told ITC, that there is no joint venture agreement between it and Aurora and that it has no current or plans to develop a data centre at their site.
ITC has been advised that Aurora also has no plans to develop a data centre at its site and has put 18-20 Mars Road on the market for sale.
Lane Cove West residents and the Lane Cove Responsible Planning Group have been campaigning to stop the data centre cluster in Lane Cove West Business Park because of its proximity to homes, Blackman Park, and Lane Cove West Public School.
The Goodman Group has recently withdrawn its state significant development application for a data centre at 12 Mars Road, Lane Cove West.
At one stage, four new data centres were proposed for the Lane Cove Business Park, in addition to the existing AirTrunk hyperscale data centre. That number has since fallen to two, with one proposal still progressing through the planning process and the other approved by NSW Planning. Combined with the operational AirTrunk facility, this brings the total to a possible three data centres.
Sasha Titchkosky, spokesperson for the Lane Cove Responsible Planning Group, told ITC:
“The Lane Cove community is relieved to hear that another Mars Road data centre application will not be proceeding. The fight continues with the additional AirTrunk Data Centre currently in the planning process. The Lane Cove community does not believe that the Lane Cove Business Park is the right location for a hyperscale data centre.”
Member for Lane Cove the Hon Anthony Roberts MP told ITC:
“This is a win for the Lane Cove Community. Neither Ausgrid nor Sydney Water have satisfied me that we have sufficient power and water resources for the number of Data Centres planned for the Lane Cove West Business Park. There have been no assurances that energy bills won’t increase, and power blackouts will not take place.”
The Lane Cove Data Centre Development Project raises transparency questions. It also raises questions about an Ausgrid-related entity’s involvement in a data centre development.
Who is Lane Cove DC Alliance?
When the announcement was made, ITC noticed that The Lane Cove DC Alliance was not a registered business name or a company listed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. There was no information about the proponents.
The Government’s 27 March 2026 announcement named 14 endorsed data centre projects, including the Lane Cove DC Alliance’s “Lane Cove Data Centre Development Project (16-20 Mars Road, Lane Cove West)”. A note at the bottom of the endorsed plans revealed one further endorsed data centre was not listed due to commercial sensitivities, making 15 in total.
The same release said the IDA had declined to endorse around $40.7 billion of data centre and technology proposals it considered premature or overly speculative.
The property at 16 Mars Road Lane Cove West (16 Mars Road) is owned by Lane Cove Business Park Pty Ltd and managed by Ford Land Company.
The property at 18–20 Mars Road Lane Cove West (18-20 Mars Road) is owned by a group of companies that make up the Aurora Property Partnership.
Investment Delivery Authority Declined to Provide Lane Cove DC Alliance Details
In the Cove approached the IDA and asked it to provide information on the Lane Cove DC Alliance. In April 2026, a NSW Government spokesperson responded:
“The proposed data centre project has not been lodged in the planning system. More information about the project will be available if and when that happens.
“It’s important to note that endorsement by the Investment Delivery Authority does not guarantee a successful planning outcome.
“Projects will need to comply with relevant legislation and policies, both at the State and Commonwealth level, including Foreign Investment Review Board processes, if applicable.”
The response did not say who was behind the Lane Cove DC Alliance.
When In the Cove asked again, an NSW Government spokesperson said on 15 July 2026:
“The Investment Delivery Authority (IDA) is guided by a robust governance, operating and probity framework with the protection of commercially sensitive information an important part of its processes.
“Lane Cove DC Alliance is the name the proponent requested be used in relation to the project’s endorsement by the IDA in March 2026.
“Should the proponent choose to progress their proposal, information about the project and the proponent would become publicly available through the planning process.
“It’s important to note that endorsement by the IDA does not guarantee a successful planning outcome.
“Projects need to comply with relevant legislation and policies, both at the State and Commonwealth level, including Foreign Investment Review Board processes, if applicable.”
The Government confirmed that the proponent chose the name, and that the IDA agreed to publicly endorse the project under it.
The public, and the Lane Cove community, would eventually learn who was behind the proposal when the proponent lodged documents with NSW Planning.
As a result, In the Cove lodged an access application under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, known as a GIPA application (like an FOI application).
The process gives the public a legally enforceable right to request information held by government agencies, unless an overriding public interest outweighs the need for disclosure.
The Information and Privacy Unit Legal Branch Office of General Counsel at the Cabinet Office decided to release the name of the proponents.
What did the GIPA reveal?
The documents released to In the Cove show the proponents behind the proposed data centre at 16–20 Mars Road, Lane Cove West, are Ford Land Company and Aurora Property Partnership.
Aurora describes itself as a related entity of Ausgrid with the same owners, and Ausgrid’s corporate governance page lists it as one of the four partnerships in the Ausgrid Group.
Being named as a proponent does not mean the Lane Cove DC Alliance, or Aurora (the Ausgrid-related entity), would build the data centre.
But the IDA’s published criteria require a proponent and its team to have the experience, capability, and capacity to complete the project, demonstrate they can begin development quickly, and secure land tenure.
When announcing the 27 March 2026 endorsements, Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said:
“New South Wales is a premium destination for data centres, but we are only interested in working with proponents who have a long-term commitment to both this state and their social licence.”
Who is Aurora?
Aurora has a one page website which describes its activities as a diversified real estate group backed by some of Australia’s largest investors, who operate across residential, industrial, office and energy infrastructure sectors with a primary focus on urban in-fill sites in the Sydney metropolitan area.
The Ausgrid Group is made up of four partnerships: Ausgrid Operator Partnership, Ausgrid Asset Partnership, PLUS ES Partnership and Aurora Property Partnership. It is operated under a long-term lease and owned by IFM Investors (25.2%), APG Asset Management (16.8%), AustralianSuper (8.4%) and the NSW Government (49.6%), which holds its stake through the Electricity Retained Interest Corporation – Ausgrid.
Ausgrid’s annual report shows Aurora Property Partnership’s partners are the same as the rest of the Ausgrid Group in identical proportions: an IFM Investors, AustralianSuper and APG consortium with 50.4%, and NSW Government entities with 49.6%.
The Ausgrid Group’s published governance materials identify the same board as providing governance oversight for the group.
You may recall that last year the same entity sold a small parcel of land at 24A Kenneth St in Longueville. The land included a substation. You can read about this sale here.
In February 2026, Ausgrid released a statement saying it was committed to transparency when selling surplus land.
The same statement notes:
“Any eventual profits made by Aurora fund ongoing expenses or are returned as dividends. As the NSW Government owns 49.6% of both Ausgrid and Aurora, almost half of all dividends paid go directly back to the taxpayers of New South Wales.”
Aurora’s response
In response to questions from In the Cove, a spokesperson for Aurora Property Partnership said:
“The Aurora Property Partnership is not part of Ausgrid’s regulated electricity network activities and is not funded by electricity customers. It is a standalone business that operates at arm’s length from Ausgrid. Aurora acquires, holds and sells property, including land that is no longer required for network purposes acquired from Ausgrid, at market value. Any eventual profits made by Aurora fund ongoing expenses or are returned as dividends. As the NSW Government owns 49.6% of both Ausgrid and Aurora, almost half of all dividends paid go directly back to the taxpayers of NSW.
Given that 18-20 Mars Road was identified as surplus to network requirements, a joint proposal to the IDA that contemplated the site and an adjoining site being used for a data centre. The joint proposal was in the early scoping phase but the proponents elected not to proceed for commercial reasons. Accordingly, the expression of interest was withdrawn.
Aurora would not ordinarily advise its owners of early-stage proposals in relation to surplus properties.
Lane Cove DC Alliance was simply the project name selected by the joint proponents. The expression of interest lodged with the IDA named the Aurora Property Partnership and Ford Land Company as the proponents.
Noting that the proposal involved joint proponents, Aurora was always comfortable with being publicly named as a proponent.
The expression of interest was not a development application and no development application was lodged for a data centre by the proponents.
Aurora is offering 18-20 Mars Road for sale through an open market process. The reference to E4 General Industrial relates to a rezoning that Aurora is pursuing through Lane Cove Council, consistent with the zoning of the surrounding Lane Cove West Business Park. Any future use of 18-20 Mars Road will be subject to the normal planning process.”
Ford Land’s Response
“Ford Land and Aurora have withdrawn the IDA.
There is no joint venture agreement on foot (for a data centre or otherwise) between Aurora Property Partners and Ford Land Company.
I can confirm that Ford Land Company has no current or future plans for the development of a data centre on the site at this time (nor are we participating in any discussions with stakeholders or other interested parties relating to data centres at this location, whether they be government, private sector or otherwise).”
An IDA spokesperson confirmed they received a withdrawal notice. As of 20 October 2026, the Investment Delivery Authority’s published list of supported projects still included the Lane Cove Data Centre.
Why Aurora’s involvement raises questions
When a large data centre in Ausgrid’s distribution area goes through the State planning system, the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure asks for Ausgrid’s advice, including on network capacity. Ausgrid also decides who gets connected to its network. That raises a question about how the Ausgrid Group keeps those roles apart from the interests of Aurora, which has the same owners and was named as a proponent of a data centre that would have needed such a connection. There is no suggestion that one has acted improperly.
Ausgrid’s connection principles (which govern all network requests) are publicly available on its website. Any applicant seeking an Ausgrid network connection must follow the same connection process and is strictly subject to the same rules and requirements as other applicants.
The Ausgrid 2025 Annual Report describes its unregulated business as including contestable metering, infrastructure services, batteries, electric vehicle charging, facility access and lease of property. It does not mention data centre development.
Ausgrid’s public statements on data centres treat them only as customers.
On 27 March 2026, the same day the Government announced the IDA endorsements, Ausgrid lodged a joint submission with Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy to the NSW Parliament’s data centre inquiry. It does not mention Aurora or any Ausgrid interest in developing a data centre.
The submission notes that distributors must process connection applications equitably, without favouring any customer. It also warns that data centre sites are often secured before network feasibility is known, locking up scarce industrial land, and says Ausgrid has removed more than 3 GW of speculative demand from its connections pipeline.
In response to questions from ITC, an Ausgrid spokesperson said:
“Ausgrid’s submission to the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry responded to the Inquiry’s terms of reference on how distribution networks connect data centres. Ausgrid’s parliamentary submissions reflect its activities as an electricity network operator; this does not include any activities undertaken by Aurora.
The Ausgrid annual report provides financial and corporate reporting on the Group’s activities at a broad level, which does not include data centre development.”
Questions About Regulatory Standards
Questions about the relationship were raised in NSW Parliament five months before the IDA endorsement. On 16 October 2025, Liberal Member for Willoughby Tim James put a written question on notice to the Minister for Energy about Ausgrid and Aurora Property Partnership.
He asked whether it was appropriate for what he described as a subsidiary of an electricity distributor to engage directly in commercial property development. He also asked what safeguards prevented information from passing between Ausgrid and Aurora that could give an unfair advantage in state planning changes or preferential electricity connections.
The Government’s answer, received on 21 November 2025, did not address the first question, saying it “should be referred to the Treasurer”. On the second, it said electricity distributors must legally ring-fence their regulated and unregulated businesses, and that the Australian Energy Regulator enforces this through its ring-fencing guideline.
Tim James then put the referred question to the Treasurer on 22 December 2025. The answer, received on 23 January 2026, said only that the former government had sold a majority stake of Ausgrid to private operators in 2016. It did not say whether property development was an appropriate role for Aurora.
Neither answer mentioned Aurora by name. The ring-fencing answer did not say how those rules apply to a property business in the Ausgrid Group, or what stops network or planning information reaching it.
The ring-fencing rules the Government pointed to are set by the Australian Energy Regulator and bind Ausgrid as the network business, not Aurora.
Because Aurora shares Ausgrid’s owners, it may be treated as an affiliate for the purposes of the Australian Energy Regulator’s ring-fencing framework. That framework can require Ausgrid to keep records of dealings with affiliates, ensure that costs are not recovered from electricity customers, and report the purpose of those dealings to the regulator.
Ausgrid must also keep non-public network and customer information confidential, and separate national electricity rules protect information supplied by companies seeking a connection.
The more prescriptive separation measures under the ring-fencing framework, including measures directed at preventing a distributor from favouring a related business, may apply differently depending on the nature of the related business and the services involved.
Aurora describes itself as a real estate group rather than an electricity service provider.
The framework also contains provisions governing the release or use of protected information. On the public material reviewed, it is not clear how those provisions would apply to a request by, or disclosure to, Aurora as a related entity within the Ausgrid Group.
Ausgrid’s 2025 ring-fencing compliance report does not mention Aurora.
There is no suggestion that Ausgrid has shared information with Aurora or given it any advantage.
Property for Sale with a Pathway
Recently, CBRE listed 18–20 Mars Road, Lane Cove West, for sale. The CBRE listing notes a proposed pathway for the site.
The land is zoned SP2 Infrastructure under the Lane Cove Local Environmental Plan 2009, while the adjoining 16 Mars Road is zoned E4 General Industrial.
If a data centre is prohibited on the SP2 Infrastructure land under the Lane Cove Local Environmental Plan 2009, section 4.38(3) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 permits development consent to be granted for State significant development that is partly prohibited by an environmental planning instrument.
This means that a data centre development spanning both properties could potentially be approved without rezoning the SP2 land, provided the development meets the relevant statutory requirements.
Separately, 18–20 Mars Road Lane Cove West is now being marketed for sale with a proposed pathway to E4 General Industrial zoning. The proposed rezoning pathway reflects the location of the site in an existing industrial area and is not connected to the withdrawn data centre proposal.
There is a building located at 18 Mars Road and signage identifies it as the “Lane Cove Testing Station” of PLUS ES. PLUS ES is a separate partnership in the Ausgrid Group and Ausgrid’s related electricity service provider.
The testing station has a contested history. On 16 March 2021, PLUS ES announced the closure of the high-power test station at Lane Cove.
Engineers Australia said it was the only facility in Australia that could verify network equipment performance under very high currents, and the only one left in the southern hemisphere that could test to internationally recognised ASTA certification standards.
It warned the closure would reduce Australia’s sovereign manufacturing capability and could affect the reliability and safety of electricity networks. A steering committee formed under Engineers Australia and the Australian Industry Group tried to keep the facility running, without success.
The station had operated at Lane Cove for around 50 years, connected directly to the adjacent 132 kV network. At the time of the closure announcement, the president of the Electric Energy Society of Australia wrote in Energy Source & Distribution that its location was critical, because high current testing must be close to a high-capacity transmission node. Large Data Centres also depend on high-capacity grid connection.
Not Aurora’s first fast-track
Mars Road is not the first time Aurora has taken land through a state fast-track pathway. Aurora sought Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) support for a four- to eight-storey, 107-apartment proposal at 494–500 and 516 Military Road, Mosman. The land includes the Mackie Lane community gardens.
In June 2025, the HDA recommended the proposal be declared state significant, and the planning minister agreed. After opposition from residents and Mosman Council, an Aurora spokeswoman told The Australian Financial Review in August 2025 that it had no plans to develop the site and had done preliminary work to understand its value. The AFR article mentioned that state significant status lifts land value and could lead to a sale to a developer.
On 25 August 2025, the minister told a parliamentary estimates hearing that if a proponent whose project had been declared state significant did not intend to develop it, “I will take away their declaration”.
In September 2025 the AFR reported that Aurora had rejected suggestions it was land-banking and had restarted the proposal, with a spokeswoman saying Aurora was “reviewing options for the site, including the possibility of an outright sale”. The environmental impact statement lodged in July 2026 names a different company, Military Rd Developer Pty Ltd, as the proponent. The scheme is now 100 apartments in a five- to 10-storey building and is at the response to submissions stage.
An Ausgrid spokesperson told ITC:
“Every time Ausgrid sells a surplus property it results in lower power prices for customers. This is because the sale of any property by Ausgrid reduces the amount of revenue Ausgrid charges customers as set by the regulator (the AER).
Ausgrid has lowered its component of customer power bills by about 8% since 2015. This has been achieved through a few ways, including sales of surplus properties.”
Questions Remain
The Government endorsed a data centre under a proponent-selected name without identifying the parties behind it, while rejecting more than $40 billion of other proposals as premature or overly speculative. It declined to tell the Lane Cove community who was behind the project. Lane Cove residents found out only because In the Cove used freedom of information laws to ask.
One of those proponents shares its owners with Ausgrid, the company that operates Sydney’s electricity network and supplies power to data centres. Questions about that relationship were put to two ministers in Parliament before the endorsement. Neither substantive answer addressed Aurora by name or explained how the ring-fencing framework applies to Aurora’s role as a property business within the Ausgrid Group.
Aurora has told ITC it was comfortable to be named as a proponent and that Lane Cove DC Alliance was simply the project name selected by the joint proponents.
The IDA website still lists the Lane Cove project as endorsed. Meanwhile, the land at 18–20 Mars Road is on the market, offered to buyers with a pathway to rezoning.
The data centre is off the table for these proponents. The question of whether a potential rezoning could enable a future buyer of 18-20 Mars Road to develop a data centre is not.
Disclosure: In November 2023, ITC wrote a sponsored article for Ford Land advertising several properties at 16 Mars Road, Lane Cove West for short-term leases.
In the Cove is independent, paywall-free local news for Lane Cove. If you value independent local journalism for Lane Cove, please consider supporting us.