MORE than $50 million has changed hands in industrial deals in Sydney’s western corridor in recent months, including by the furniture retailer Ikea.

The giant, do-it-yourself furniture group bought a large industrial property in Rhodes for a new customer pick-up centre. It comes as the food retailer Costco also looks to expand, recently gaining approval to develop a site at 15-21 Parramatta Road, Auburn.

Cameron Grier, the managing director of CB Richard Ellis, Parramatta, and Tony Durante, associate director of Colliers International, negotiated Ikea’s purchase of the site at 1-5 Leeds Street, which includes two warehouses totalling about 7600 sq m on a land holding of 11,318 sq m.

Ikea will use the site to service its strong-performing superstore at the Rhodes Waterside Shopping Centre. It has outgrown its existing warehouse.

“This latest purchase by Ikea demonstrates the current strong demand from industrial owner-occupiers looking for larger sites across Western Sydney,” Mr Grier said. “With interest rates at all-time lows and a general feeling that the market has bottomed, purchasers are capitalising on opportunities to acquire strategic landholdings.”

The next test of the owner-occupier market will be 33 Davis Road, Wetherill Park. The two-hectare site, which includes a 9000 sq m building, is being offered for sale through CB Richard Ellis.

Mr Grier said the Ikea sale highlighted increased interest in the Rhodes area, which had traditionally been tightly held.

Mr Durante said Ikea intended to occupy one of the two existing buildings on the site. The adjoining building would be refurbished or rebuilt. Ikea had outgrown its in-store warehouse at Rhodes Waterside, he said, and would use the additional site as a pick-up centre for larger products such as kitchens and mattresses, which represented about 10 per cent of its total inventory.