Raptis family relists Pirie St office tower amid legal stoush

The Pirie St tower is back on the market.

An Adelaide office tower at the centre of a legal dispute over a failed $58.6m sale has been put back on the market.

Adelaide’s Raptis family commenced legal proceedings against Sydney trustee group One Managed Investment Funds (OMIF) in 2023, claiming it reneged on an agreement to acquire the Pirie St building.

A last ditch bid to salvage the deal was rejected late last year, after Raptis Properties offered to lend investment manager Capital Property Funds (CPF) $20m to get the deal over the line.

As trustee of the purchasing fund, OMIF rejected the proposal, concluding it “was unlikely to be in the best interest of members”.

OMIF later terminated its investment management agreement with Capital Property Funds in November last year, setting up a battle in South Australia’s Supreme Court between Raptis, OMIF and CPF executives.

Raptis alleges that OMIF breached a contract to complete the acquisition in February 2023. But in its latest update to investors, OMIF confirmed it was defending the matter, claiming CPF and its lawyers HFW had acted without OMIF’s permission and authority when confirming it had secured the financing needed to acquire the building.

It also argues that even if OMIF was legally entitled to complete the contract, Raptis is unable to recover any damages from the fund’s assets because OMIF’s indemnity as trustee does not extend to cases where it is deemed to have acted “negligently”.

OMIF has also launched cross-claim action against CPF and its executive director Andrew Kerr, claiming they acted negligently when recommending that OMIF sign the contract given an insufficient level of funds had been raised from investors to finance the purchase.

Mr Kerr confirmed to The Australian that he and CPF disputed those claims, and would be filing their defence in the coming weeks.

OMIF has appointed Archerfield Property Group to take over as asset and investment manager for the fund in which the Pirie St property was to be held. The fund currently owns an office building on Coronation Drive on Brisbane’s western fringe.

CBRE’s Ian Thomas and Alistair Laycock, and Colliers’ Jordan Schmidt and Alistair Mackie, have been appointed to sell the Pirie St property, which is 86 per cent leased to tenants including Lockheed Martin, Macquarie Bank, Cowell Clarke and Bentleys.

The 11-level tower offers 11,329sq m of net lettable area on a 1823sq m corner site, with 34 basement car parks.

Mr Schmidt said the building was located in Adelaide’s “premier office precinct”, with its Capital City zoning presenting opportunities for future development.

“The area is currently undergoing a transformation, with Pirie St reclaiming its status as a prime business location and epicentre of the Adelaide CBD.”

Mr Schmidt said the building had undergone several upgrades in recent years, including a comprehensive refurbishment of the airconditioning system and the addition of modern end-of-trip facilities with secure basement bike parking.

Expressions of interest close on March 19.

Raptis Properties is an entity associated with the South Australian-based Raptis family who made their fortune in the fishing industry. It is not associated with the ASX-listed Raptis Group. The Raptis family has owned the property for more than 20 years.