How Western Sydney shaped CBRE development specialist Alex Mirzaian
Mirzaian is a senior director within CBRE’s Development NSW business, operating across the company’s Western Sydney and North Sydney offices
4 min
As population growth, infrastructure spending and rezoning reshape Sydney’s west, CBRE senior director Alex Mirzaian has built a career around navigating the increasingly complex market for development sites.
For decades, Sydney’s prestige property conversation was dominated by the harbour and the city’s eastern suburbs. Yet some of its most consequential development activity has been taking place in a different part of the metropolitan area.
Population growth, major transport projects, new employment centres and extensive rezoning have steadily changed the scale of opportunity across Western Sydney. They have also made development transactions more complicated.
It is in this environment that Alex Mirzaian has built his career.
Mirzaian is a senior director within CBRE’s Development NSW business, operating across the company’s Western Sydney and North Sydney offices. He joined CBRE in February 2013 and has accumulated more than 15 years of property experience, with a particular focus on the sale and acquisition of development sites.
His professional trajectory reflects Western Sydney’s transformation from a market sometimes treated as peripheral to one that now plays a central role in the city’s growth.
Building expertise in a changing market
Selling a development site is markedly different from selling an established home.
Its value is influenced not only by location and land area but by planning controls, permissible density, infrastructure, construction economics, funding conditions and the intended end market. Two neighbouring parcels can have dramatically different development potential.
A successful campaign therefore depends on establishing what the land could become and identifying the buyers capable of delivering that outcome.
Mirzaian developed his practice in Western Sydney as investment and development attention moved towards the region’s growth corridors. Working in the market over an extended period gave him exposure to different planning environments, buyer groups and property cycles.
That experience is increasingly valuable as Western Sydney’s development landscape becomes more sophisticated. Landowners may be dealing with changes to zoning or density, while developers must test potential projects against rising construction costs, financing constraints and changing buyer demand.
A property’s theoretical development yield may look compelling on paper. Whether that yield can be delivered economically is another question.
More than finding a buyer
Development-site sales are often described in terms of the final price, but the structure of a transaction can be just as important.
Settlement periods, planning conditions, due-diligence requirements, deposits and access arrangements can materially influence the attractiveness and certainty of a deal. A higher offer with extensive conditions may not ultimately provide a vendor with a better outcome than a cleaner proposal from a well-capitalised buyer.
Mirzaian’s work centres on managing those competing considerations through a structured sales process.
That begins with understanding the site and the vendor’s priorities. It then extends to identifying likely purchaser groups, presenting the development opportunity coherently and managing negotiations between parties that may have very different commercial requirements.
According to the profile supplied to Kanebridge, Mirzaian’s clients have included private landowners, developers, offshore investors, government bodies, religious and community organisations, and receivers handling more complex or distressed assets.
Each category presents a different brief.
A family disposing of a long-held property may be primarily concerned with price, certainty and timing. A government agency may require a highly transparent process. A receiver will often be working within strict legal and financial parameters, while an experienced developer may place greater emphasis on planning potential and settlement flexibility.
The agent’s role is consequently closer to that of a transaction adviser than a conventional salesperson.
Working across Sydney’s property markets
Mirzaian’s position across CBRE’s Western Sydney and North Sydney operations also reflects the way development capital now moves throughout the metropolitan area.
Developers and investors rarely confine themselves to one geographical market. They compare opportunities according to planning risk, projected demand, construction feasibility and the availability of finance.
Relationships established through one transaction can therefore lead to opportunities in a very different part of the city.
Western Sydney remains an important part of Mirzaian’s professional identity, but his current remit extends beyond it. That broader coverage allows him to connect owners and purchasers operating across established and emerging Sydney markets.
It also provides a view of how buyer priorities change between locations. A project in a mature North Shore suburb may depend on scarcity and an affluent local downsizer market. A larger Western Sydney site might instead derive value from future population growth, transport investment or the potential to create housing at scale.
The fundamentals of the transaction remain consistent, but the development and marketing strategy must respond to the location.
A market that rewards clear advice
Sydney’s development sector is operating in a more demanding environment than it was during periods of cheap capital and rapid price growth.
Developers are scrutinising construction costs, presales, finance and delivery risk more closely. Vendors must distinguish between ambitious expressions of interest and offers with a credible prospect of reaching settlement.
In that setting, disciplined transaction management becomes particularly important.
A competitive campaign still needs to generate interest, but it must also give prospective purchasers enough information and confidence to progress. Clear timelines, appropriately managed due diligence and realistic communication can help preserve competition without compromising certainty.
Mirzaian’s career offers a useful perspective on the evolution of development sales. His rise has occurred alongside that of Western Sydney itself: a market shaped by growth, infrastructure and increasingly complex development decisions.
The value of an adviser in this environment is not measured solely by the ability to attract the highest headline offer. It lies in understanding the site, recognising the motivations of each stakeholder and creating a process capable of turning interest into a completed transaction.
Fact box
- Name: Alex Mirzaian
- Position: Senior Director, Development NSW
- Company: CBRE
- Office coverage: Western Sydney and North Sydney
- Joined CBRE: February 2013
- Property experience: More than 15 years, according to the supplied profile
- Specialisation: Development-site sales, buyer engagement, negotiation and transaction structuring
- Client sectors: Private landowners, developers, offshore investors, government agencies, community and religious organisations, and receivers
- Geographical focus: Greater Sydney, with an established background in Western Sydney
For Central Element, the start of work at Pearl represents another step in the company’s growing eastern suburbs pipeline.
All three vehicles will form part of a broader charitable initiative benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the American Red Cross and Starlight Children’s Foundation
Jack Freeman believes the most compelling interiors are not decorated, but collected. The FREEMAN & CO founder creates layered, personal spaces shaped by art, travel and craftsmanship.
4 min
For Jack Freeman, a compelling interior should not look as though it was completed in a single shopping trip.
The founder and designer behind FREEMAN & CO prefers rooms that develop through art, travel, commissioned furniture and objects collected over time. It is an approach that treats the home less as a decorative project and more as an evolving portrait of its owner.
“I am a true believer in collecting versus decorating,” Freeman says.
That distinction underpins the international practice he has built across private residences, hotels, property developments, yachts and private aviation. Its projects stretch from Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay and Toorak to Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean.
Although the locations and architecture vary considerably, the work is connected by a restrained design language. Natural stone, warm timbers and sculptural furniture establish the foundation, while art, bespoke lighting and individual objects give each interior its identity.
The objective is not to overwhelm a room with obvious symbols of expense. It is to create an environment that feels calm, layered and particular to the people living within it.
“The greatest luxury isn’t about excess,” Freeman says. “It’s about creating an oasis where you come home and feel immediately grounded — effortlessly chic and deeply personal.”
Collecting instead of decorating
Decorating can imply the completion of a room: selecting the required furniture, filling the available walls and producing a coherent finished image.
Collecting is less conclusive.
A collected interior has room to change as its owners travel, discover artists, inherit pieces or reassess how they use their home. Its character comes from the relationship between objects rather than adherence to a single brand or season.
That does not mean placing unrelated pieces together without discipline. The designer must understand scale, proportion, material and provenance well enough to create a dialogue between them.
A contemporary artwork might sit beside a historic piece of furniture. A precisely detailed new interior may be interrupted by an irregular object made by hand. Smooth stone can be balanced by timber, textiles or a patinated metal surface that becomes richer with age.
The tension between those elements is part of the appeal.
For Freeman, art is not an accessory to be added once the furniture plan is complete. It forms part of the architecture and atmosphere of the room from the beginning.
Lighting is considered in the same way. Beyond its practical purpose, a bespoke fitting can operate as a suspended sculpture, changing both the room’s composition and the way its materials are experienced after dark.
A design perspective shaped by travel
International travel plays a significant role in Freeman’s creative process.
Design fairs such as PAD Paris and Salone del Mobile in Milan provide opportunities to encounter emerging designers, established galleries, new materials and collectible furniture away from the filter of social media.
More spontaneous discoveries can prove equally important.
“Sometimes it’s the simple things,” Freeman says. “That piece found on a shopping trip with a client in Paris, stumbling across an artisan’s workshop, or a special memory that forms the narrative of the story.”
Objects selected during travel bring more than visual interest into a home. They carry an association with a place, maker or experience, giving the client a connection that cannot be reproduced by ordering an entire interior from a catalogue.
Freeman’s influences are international, but his projects are not conceived as replicas of Parisian, Milanese or Californian style. Each commission responds to its architecture, setting, natural light and the daily lives of its occupants.
A waterfront Sydney residence demands a different treatment from a Mayfair townhouse. A Caribbean estate shaped by brutalist architecture and reflecting pools calls for another response again.
The designer’s role is to absorb those references without allowing them to overwhelm the individual qualities of the property.
Designing the complete experience
FREEMAN & CO extends beyond conventional interior decoration.
The practice’s stated services include interior design and architecture, project management, property acquisition, development advice, concept design, documentation, furniture and lighting design, procurement and art curation.
That breadth allows the team to become involved before a room’s dimensions and finishes are fixed.
Early participation can be important at the top end of the residential market, where architecture, landscape, interiors, technology and art must operate as one environment. Decisions about ceiling heights, wall dimensions, sightlines and lighting can directly affect where art is installed or how custom furniture is proportioned.
The practice can then carry those decisions through to procurement and final installation, maintaining the design narrative as a project moves between architects, builders, specialist craftspeople, dealers and suppliers.
Its residential portfolio includes a South Coast retreat conceived as an escape from urban life, a Caribbean estate with reflecting pools, an East Coast-inspired Palm Beach residence and a Mayfair townhouse organised around an expressive drawing room.
The studio also says it has worked on highly tailored Sydney residences with values exceeding $100 million, although the private nature of such commissions means individual addresses and clients are not always disclosed.
A home that can keep changing
The risk in creating a perfectly resolved interior is that it can become too static — a composition that looks exceptional in photographs but leaves little room for life.
Freeman sees the home as something that should evolve with its owners.
“I love the evolution of design,” he says. “We are talking about people’s lives, and as they evolve, so too should their private sanctuaries.”
That evolution might involve adding art, reupholstering a significant piece, adapting rooms as a family changes or making space for objects gathered through future travels.
The original design needs to be strong enough to accommodate those layers.
This may be the clearest expression of Freeman’s approach to luxury. It is not simply access to rare stone, collectible furniture or commissioned craftsmanship. It is the creation of a personal environment whose meaning deepens rather than diminishes with time.
Fact box
- Designer: Jack Freeman
- Role: Founder and managing director
- Practice: FREEMAN & CO
- Base: Australia, with international projects
- Project locations named by the practice: Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay, Toorak, Palm Beach, the NSW South Coast, Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean
- Sectors: Private residences, hotels, residential developments, private aviation and superyachts
- Services: Interior design and architecture, property development, project management, property acquisition, documentation, furniture and lighting design, FF&E procurement, interior dressing and art curation
- Design philosophy: Collected, personal interiors shaped by art, craftsmanship, travel and enduring materials
- Website: free-man.co
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