Mirvac has announced it will partner with tech accelerator and co-working company, York Butter Factory, to create an “innovation hub” in Sydney.  

The partnership, called Hoist, will see the launch of a collaborative working space at Sydney’s Australian Technology Park (ATP). The so-called innovation hub will bring together corporates, start-ups, incubators and accelerators within the heritage-listed Locomotive Workshops. The space itself will include co-working desks, separate team areas, and dedicated areas for workshops and events.

"A successful smart precinct moves away from the homogenous use of a space and mixes start-ups, corporates, entrepreneurs, the latest technologies and new property strategies to form a hybrid, allowing cross-collaboration and sharing of ideas," Mirvac's Paul Edwards tells Fairfax Media.

To begin with, the project will use approximately 1000 square metres of space and contain 50 seats for start-ups and corporates. Over the next three years, Mirvac says it plans to increase this space off the back of the scheduled $1-billion redevelopment of the ATP.

“There’s 28,000 square metres under the one roof, with a pre-existing heritage for creating successful tech businesses, and there’s a real opportunity to increase the density and diversity of entrepreneurial activity in there,” Stuart Richardson, York Butter Factory’s co-founder, tells InnovationAus.

These plans are just the first stages of Mirvac’s partnership with York Butter Factory. Once the Sydney project is underway, the companies hope to establish similar initiatives across Australia. 

The first Hoist innovation hub is set to open at Australian Technology Park next month.