Stockland and John Boyd Properties have withdrawn the AI data centre from their plans for a logistics precinct on the Cooks River at Arncliffe in Sydney’s south, ABC News reported on November 8, after opposition from local residents. Bloomberg also reported that Stockland had scrapped the data centre plans after local backlash.
The developers had proposed to redevelop the rezoned 18.3-hectare Kogarah Golf Club site into an estimated $3.5 billion logistics precinct including an AI data centre, ABC News reports. ABC News describes it as the latest in a series of proposed Sydney data centres scrapped following community opposition.
Business Pill · Power Purchase Agreements
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on power purchase agreements, long-term deals to buy power at a set price. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss Stockland, Goodman, Sydney or any company named here.
The key insight: ABC News reports that Stockland and John Boyd Properties have dropped the AI data centre from their estimated $3.5 billion Cooks River logistics plan after local opposition, about six weeks after Goodman withdrew its 90-megawatt Lane Cove application.
A Stockland spokesperson told ABC News the partners were now focused on building a “world class logistics precinct which does not include a data centre as part of the amended Concept Masterplan”.
The spokesperson said: “The site is on the doorstep of Sydney Airport and in close proximity to Port Botany and major transport infrastructure, making it uniquely suited for a logistics hub and has potential for mixed uses, like retail and hospitality”. The spokesperson said the group would continue to engage openly with stakeholders as planning for the logistics precinct progressed.
Goodman Group withdrew its 90-megawatt Project Mars application in Lane Cove on September 28, the BBC reported; ABC News reported on November 8 that Stockland and John Boyd Properties had dropped the data centre from their Cooks River logistics plan. The lower lane shows two items from our earlier coverage this week: unofficial US ballot counts and Reuters’ report from Amsterdam. The 41-day gap is our arithmetic.
The Opposition
Stop the Cooks River AI Project, a group ABC News says consists of hundreds of members, had been protesting against the development since forming in August. Group organiser Paddy Gibson called the decision a “very good win for people power”, and cited the river’s ecology, power usage and possible water contamination, according to ABC News.
Bayside Greens councillor Peter Strong, who led the council’s opposition to the project, told ABC News the withdrawal sent a message to the state government that “the council should have more of a veto on these data centres”. ABC News reports that the group said it would continue campaigning against the logistics hub and for a ban on all new AI data centres.
Sydney’s Earlier Withdrawal
In September, Goodman Group withdrew its application for Project Mars, a A$1.2bn, 90-megawatt data centre in the Lane Cove area, the BBC reported on September 28. The proposal received 374 submissions during a consultation, with just nine in support of it, according to the BBC.
In its letter to the New South Wales Department of Planning, Goodman said: “During this time, the policy and regulatory environment for large-scale data centre development has evolved significantly”, the BBC reported.
ABC News reports that residents at Merrylands in Western Sydney have also rallied against Goodman’s $1.1 billion Project Pluto data centre, which was approved in July as a state-significant development. The New South Wales government released a data centre policy framework in August, and a parliamentary inquiry report said guidelines should have been in place before fast-track processes; the government has until February to respond, according to ABC News.
By our arithmetic, the nine supporting submissions the BBC cites for Project Mars were 2.4% of the 374 received. The Goodman and Stockland withdrawals were about six weeks apart: Goodman’s on September 28, as reported by the BBC, and Stockland’s, reported by ABC News on November 8.
The Structural Read
As we read the ABC News report, the land stays in development: the partners told ABC News they are focused on a logistics precinct without a data centre, so the data centre use is what changed.
As we read the two Sydney cases, the opposition in each was organised and on the record: 374 submissions for Project Mars, with nine in support, and a residents’ group of hundreds for Cooks River.
As we read our coverage this week, the same local question appeared in US ballot counts and at a Microsoft site near Amsterdam; Sydney adds withdrawals by developers rather than votes or protests.
Peter Strong, Bayside Greens councillor, to ABC News
“the council should have more of a veto on these data centres”
Three Implications
FOR THE DEVELOPERS A Stockland spokesperson told ABC News the partners will continue to engage openly with stakeholders as planning for the logistics precinct progresses.
FOR THE OPPOSITION ABC News reports that the residents’ group said it would continue campaigning against the logistics hub and for a ban on all new AI data centres.
FOR STATE POLICY ABC News reports that the New South Wales government has until February to respond to a parliamentary inquiry report on data centres.
The analysis says: “The structural bottleneck isn’t computing, it’s electrons.”
As we read it, the Sydney withdrawals show a second constraint beside electrons: local consent for the site. The analysis does not discuss Sydney.
What Is Not Established
ABC News does not give a megawatt figure or a capital cost for the Cooks River data centre itself; the $3.5 billion estimate covers the whole logistics precinct. Stockland did not give a reason for the change in the statement ABC News reported. We could read only Bloomberg’s headline. This piece makes no forecast about the revised masterplan or other Sydney projects.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
The Great Convergence of Capital, Power, and Geopolitics
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a supply story, and last week as a credit story. This week it was priced as a permission story, and the answer arrived as a cost, not a ban.
Stockland and John Boyd Properties have removed the AI data centre from their Cooks River logistics plan, ABC News reports, about six weeks after Goodman withdrew its 90-megawatt Lane Cove application. Both followed organised local opposition.
A note on sourcing. Stockland’s statement and the Cooks River details are from ABC News (November 8, 2026); the Project Mars details are from the BBC (September 28, 2026); only Bloomberg’s headline was read. Dollar figures are Australian dollars as reported. The percentage and day count are our arithmetic. This piece is not investment advice.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
