Canadians buy Melbourne’s Myer headquarters

The office deal would be the largest in Melbourne this year and comes after Singapore-based TrustCapital Advisors offloaded a trio of buildings in the city as part of its disposal of $727.55m worth of towers along Australia’s eastern seaboard.

More deals are being struck in Melbourne, but Manulife would join property funds group Charter Hall and funds giants Challenger and US-based Invesco in investing in the Docklands.

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Manulife has taken a shine to Australian real estate and is looking to build a major presence in the market. It is separately in the process of awarding a mandate to Sydney-based Eureka Real Assets to chase Australian properties.

The owners of the Myer headquarters kicked off a campaign to sell the complex last month and drew heavy bidding from local and international groups.

Manulife is believed to have prevailed after tying up with Lendlease, which may retain a role in managing the asset.

The property, at 800 Collins St, is jointly owned by the Lendlease-managed Australian Prime Property Fund Commercial and Savills Investment Management. The A-grade building, which serves as the national support office for the retail giant, is being sold by Savills and JLL.

JLL’s Langton McHarg and Paul Kempton, and Savills’ Ian Hetherington, Simon Fenn and Ben Azar are the agents but they declined to comment.

Latitude Financial Services, formerly GE Money, has also taken a 10-year lease, lifting the building’s weighted average lease expiry to about six years.

The Docklands precinct has emerged as an important location and parties are also separately chasing assets such as the Channel Seven building on Harbour Esplanade.

The Myer complex is made up of 28,619sqm of office space over 10 levels and 873sqm of retail space, plus two levels of parking.

Bovis Lend Lease developed the complex for APPF Commercial and European funds giant SEB Asset Management, which was taken over by the Savills investment unit in 2015.

The Melbourne leg of the TCA portfolio saw AMP Capital, acting for Swiss Re, swoop on 469 La Trobe St for $160.5 million.

Another pair of buildings in the city — 850 Collins St and 575 Bourke St — were bought by PA Realty, a joint venture between Japan’s MEC and Hong Kong-based CLSA Real Estate.

The Collins St tower, a 17,337sqm A-grade building also in the Docklands precinct, sold for $156.1 million. Meanwhile 575 Bourke St, a 16,152sqm multi-let, recently refurbished office tower in Melbourne CBD’s western core, sold for $140.2 million.