Perth’s Optima Centre trades for $130m
The acquisitive Charter Hall Group is forging back into Perth’s hot office market, seeking to buy the city’s Optima Centre for about $130 million.
The move comes after Charter Hall sold another Perth complex to Elanor for $125m and indicates its bullish longer-term view on the resources city.
Charter Hall is moving after rivals Growthpoint Properties and Primewest also looked at the Optima Centre, which is being sold by BlackRock.
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The asset, in Herdsmen Business Park, was completed in 2010. It was last bought by private equity real estate group MGPA for $105.67 million in 2013. The fully leased, two-building office campus has 16,116sqm of office space and occupies a 9459sqm site 5km from Perth’s CBD.
The property is being sold by agents Colliers International and JLL, which declined to comment.
The Optima Centre has an annual net income of about $9.03 million from a clutch of blue-chip tenants.
Charter Hall’s funds arm has been drawn to the complex by the long lease whereby the West Australian government will occupy about 83% of the property until mid-2032.
Local investors are pouring into Perth’s office market. Growthpoint bought the complex at 836 Wellington Street, in West Perth, from Investa Office Fund for about $91.3 million. Groups including Chinese-backed developer Zone Q and the listed Elanor have chased the Exchange Tower, put on the block by AMP Capital and Primewest for about $350 million.
That sale will see AMP Capital cash in on rapidly improving investment sentiment towards Perth as its leasing markets pick up and institutional players once again move into the city.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
