Singapore group leads bid for Perth’s BGC Centre
Singapore-based Redhill Property Partners is heading the field of bidders for Perth’s BGC Centre, which is being sold by the family of late tycoon Len Buckeridge for about $110 million.
The group, believed to be acting with the support of US private equity group Apollo, has beaten a strong field of local and offshore players that has been drawn to Western Australia’s resources-driven capital.
Redhill Partners has a strong record in Perth and this year picked up 18 Brodie-Hall Drive, a campus style office site in the suburb of Bentley, for $18.25 million.
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It also picked up 45 St Georges Terrace, a B-grade office building in the central business district, for about $57 million. It is now repositioning that building.
The imminent disposal marks the lift in values in the WA resources capital and also allows the Buckeridge family to put another property disposal behind it after it separately sold two Perth hotels.
The sale of the city skyscraper, at 28 The Esplanade, is being handled by JLL. It has 17 floors of office space with sweeping views over Elizabeth Quay and the Swan River. It has ground floor retail and three levels of parking with 179 bays.
The tower comprises more than 15,000sq m of A-grade office space and sits opposite the waterside precinct, Elizabeth Quay. JLL’s John Williams, Nigel Freshwater and Tom Nattrass are handling the sale but declined to comment.
The building is 87% occupied, well above Perth’s CBD average and has a weighted average lease expiry of 2.3 years, giving the buyer the chance to lift income as leasing demand lifts.
Perth’s CBD property market recorded more than 51,000sq m of positive net absorption in the past 12 months and the trend is continuing on the back of the resources recovery.
Perth’s office market is offering value for counter-cyclical investors with the prime equivalent yield spread to Sydney at about 200 basis points.
The $2.6 billion Elizabeth Quay project has drawn major corporate and government tenants including oil and gas giant Chevron, which is shifting to a new headquarters tower being developed by Brookfield.
That skyscraper will soar 30-stories and a half interest is being bought by US funds group Invesco for about $400 million.
A sale would accelerate the carve-up of Buckeridge’s property empire. Singapore’s Hiap Hoe last year bought his company’s Aloft Perth hotel, and an office complex, for $100 million, and Malaysia’s YTL Corp picked up Buckeridge’s Westin Perth for about $200 million.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
