Parramatta’s Jessie Street Centre in line for $400m sale
Heavyweight property group Brookfield has put the Jessie Street Centre in the heart of Parramatta up for sale amid expectations it will go for about $400 million.
The move comes as the western Sydney hub gathers more pace, with a brace of office tower developers vying for position around the giant Parramatta Square precinct.
Tycoon Lang Walker is poised to secure a major precommitment from the re-elected Berejiklian government and it is also injecting more funds into the area.
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The government says it has finalised plans to buy a riverbank site, which is currently a car park, for its planned Powerhouse Precinct.
The purchase — estimated at about $140 million — was from the City of Parramatta and the parcel will become the centrepiece of a new arts and cultural precinct. Meanwhile, office players are also jockeying for position, with GPT, Dexus, Mirvac, Australian Unity, Scentre Group and private interests all proposing new towers.
Brookfield has been a long-term owner in the area and is partly timing its move to sell the landmark A-grade building due to the hot interest in the Parramatta area.
The complex includes a four-level office podium with an expansive atrium and 15 upper levels of office space. As well, it has parking for 337 vehicles.
Brookfield extensively refurbished it from 2007 to 2009 and the tower is occupied by government and legal tenants.
It sits next to the courts and is near Church Street Mall and Westfield Parramatta.
The 53,901sqm tower is on a 13,530sqm site that holds longer-term redevelopment potential.
Brookfield has tapped real estate advisers Josh Cullen, Rick Butler and Steven Kearney, of Cushman & Wakefield, and Paul Roberts, Ben Schubert and Graeme Russell, of Knight Frank, to advise on the sale. None of them would comment yesterday.
Brookfield has been selling other assets and is separately seeking out an investment partner to back its $800m development of a new headquarters in Perth for US energy giant Chevron. The group has tapped JLL and Cushman & Wakefield to find a take-out partner for a half-stake in that planned skyscraper, approaching about a dozen potential investors in an off-market process.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
