LaSalle purchase in Macquarie Park proves its faith in office market

LaSalle Investment Management has been an active player in recent months with several forays into northern Sydney.

US property house LaSalle Investment Management is showing its confidence in the recovery of office markets with a fresh $111.45m purchase in the northern Sydney suburb of Macquarie Park.

The deal comes after the company picked up two buildings in North Sydney and has stepped up plans to ­develop in the Melbourne CBD.

The investment house has been one of the most active players in recent months, striking transactions that show its belief in office markets and the recovery of cities.

In the latest play, it has bought 15 Talavera Rd, Macquarie Park from Asian logistics giant ESR in one of the area’s largest deals this year.

The property is a mix of office and warehouse space. It has four levels of offices spanning 11,415sq m above four levels of secure carparking with two ground-floor warehouse facilities of 1206sq m. The property presents extremely well, having recently undergone a $1.1m full lobby upgrade and end-of-trip refurbishment.

Knight Frank’s Tyler Talbot and Angus Klem and Colliers’ James Mitchell, Adam Woodward and Jon Chomley brokered the deal.

LaSalle earlier this year signalled its confidence in the office market recovering by swooping on the floors in a super-slim North Sydney building in a deal worth about $170m.

The US firm snapped up the top 24 floors in an under-construction tower at 88 Walker St that the private Billbergia is developing.

LaSalle last year swooped on 201 Miller St in North Sydney, picking it up from the Dexus Office Partnership for a net $152.4m, as it moved into the area.

The group is also planning a 35-storey office tower that would be developed over Melbourne’s heritage-listed Comedy Theatre in partnership with theatre owner the Marriner Group.

Meanwhile, Shakespeare Property Group is tying up the purchase of a major Surry Hills mixed-use holding from LaSalle in a deal worth more than $115m in a sign that Sydney’s fringe office market is holding up.

The company is buying the three-level property on the corner of Crown and Campbell streets known as Reservoir on Crown, which has offices but is most known for its ground floor tenant, The Winery.

The Macquarie Park deal shows that ESR is also making a smooth exit from the $700m North Shore holdings it put on the block earlier this year.

Investment bank UBS’s asset management arm is tying up a deal to buy a $400m tower at 73 Miller St, North Sydney that was part of ESR’s move to sell off a series of offices in which it picked up the management when it took over Propertylink.