Lend Lease grabs One Melbourne Quarter
The Lend Lease-managed fund APPF Commercial has acquired the first commercial tower in the $2 billion Melbourne Quarter project for more than $250 million and its parent company’s Victorian arm is on track to move into the complex.
The developer has confirmed its Victorian workforce will relocate to One Melbourne Quarter, on the corner of Collins and Flinders streets and directly across from Southern Cross Station, by the end of 2018.
Talks to acquire One Melbourne Quarter were revealed in The Australian last month, and the move is just one in a number of shake-ups in Lend Lease’s Victorian property portfolio.
The purchase marks a significant step in Lend Lease’s attempt to rejuvenate the Collins-Flinders section of the CBD through Melbourne Quarter.
Lend Lease property chief executive Kylie Rampa says it signals Melbourne’s commercial centre is moving west along Collins St from the eastern “Paris end”.
“The sale of this building brings the vision of Melbourne Quarter to life and will drive increased momentum for the project,” she says.
Ms Rampa says the acquisition allows Lend Lease to consolidate its Melbourne offices in one spot, as it did with the global head office’s recent move to Sydney’s Barangaroo this year.
Lend Lease has reshuffled its Melbourne properties this year, with The Gauge building on Bourke St marketed for sale and is close to a deal to sell a Docklands complex — to be occupied by ANZ — for about $450 million to an offshore buyer. Both sales are being handled by Colliers International.
The sale of this building brings the vision of Melbourne Quarter to life and will drive increased momentum for the project
APPF Commercial has expanded in the past year with the $62.6 million acquisition of a stake in the Brisbane Transit Centre in March and a deal with First State Super to buy Sydney’s Darling Square project for more than $300 million in February, which will become home to the Commonwealth Bank in late 2017.
Melbourne Quarter is slated to include up to 111,000sqm of office space and about 1600 apartments, and has won praise for its plans to devote half of the 2.5ha to green space.
The building, the first of seven towers, was designed by Melbourne architects Denton Corker Marshall and has aimed for a six-star Green Star rating.
Melbourne is seeing a flurry of sales.
An Asian developer is in due diligence on Charter Hall’s 5 Queens Rd, at more than $115 million. Singapore’s Teo family is understood to be looking at the tower, which is being handled by Colliers International and CBRE.
Another Asian group is also in due diligence to acquire the ExxonMobil’s headquarters building on Melbourne’s Southbank Promenade in a play worth more than $150 million.
The 14-level building at 12 Riverside Quay, being dealt with by JLL, could be refurbished as the city’s office market booms.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
