Waterfront offices hot property in capital cities
Some of Australia’s largest waterfront office buildings are changing hands, with Melbourne’s South Wharf Tower up for sale and a Brisbane building fetching one of the highest prices for an office complex in the past decade.
Brisbane’s Waterfront Place and the Eagle Street Pier retail complex were snapped up by property giant Dexus Property Group and Dexus Wholesale Property Fund for $635 million.
Previous owners The Future Fund and Stockland have sold their entire stakes in the buildings.
Around 68 per cent of Waterfront Place’s current tenants are Dexus clients and Dexus CEO Darren Steinberg says the purchase will shore up those relationships.
“Waterfront Place complements our ownership of 480 Queen Street in Brisbane and reinforces our role as a workspace partner for our customers.”
Melbourne is the most active investment market in the country at present
Meanwhile in Melbourne, a German investment company has thrown South Wharf Tower on the market just five years after buying it for more than $115 million.
The South Wharf Tower was completed and sold in 2010
Deka Immobilien put the 12-storey building up for sale, having bought the newly-built development on the banks of the Yarra River in 2010.
The tower returns annual rents of more than $10.6 million per year and currently houses blue-chip tenants including Mondelez International (formerly known as Cadbury and Kraft Foods), LeasePlan, ANL Container Line and the Lend Lease-owned Baulderstone.
South Wharf … benefits from a diversified tenancy mix and a staggered expiry profile that future-proofs the asset
It features a lettable area of 20,794sqm and has a 4.5-star NABERS rating.
Mark Coster, from selling agent CBRE, said the tower was expected to attract plenty of interest both at home and abroad.
“Melbourne is the most active investment market in the country at present,” Mr Coster said.
“South Wharf … benefits from a diversified tenancy mix and a staggered expiry profile that future-proofs the asset.”
