Cabot eyes Matraville complex in $150m play

An artist’s impression of 42-52 Raymond Avenue.

US private equity firm Cabot Properties is poised to expand its Australian empire with the purchase of a major institutional-grade multi-storey industrial asset in the Sydney suburb of Matraville for about $150m.

The company is targeting the purchase of a keenly sought industrial asset, which is positioned to ride the boom in rental growth in the area that has already sparked a series of projects from large developers.

The LaSalle Investment Management project, undertaken with development partner Hale Capital Partners, is well under way at 42-52 Raymond Ave. It sits in a precinct that has an acute shortage of warehouse space and limited developable land, making it attractive to investors.

The development was timed to capitalise on the leap in Matraville’s rents, which can be 60 per cent more expensive than other areas in western Sydney.

Cabot Properties has declined to comment but it has been a big buyer of property in Melbourne. It last year snapped up an industrial property in Melbourne’s northern suburb of Campbellfield for $41m, which it is now developing into a $130m logistics estate.

That deal marked the fifth acquisition by Cabot Properties in Melbourne, adding to its developments in the western suburb of Truganina and the other sites in Melbourne’s southeast.

The Matraville building will be a state-of-the-art, two-storey logistics asset of 19,757sq m. Part of the ground floor of the under-construction building is already pre-leased.

Due for completion in December, the innovative multi-storey logistics facility will spin off a strong net passing income of $6.683m per annum. The purchase will give Cabot a chance to lease to multiple tenants in the coveted South Sydney industrial market.

With more than 63 per cent of the area’s multi-storey pipeline for the next two years already pre- committed due to surging occupier demand for new warehouses, the institutional-grade industrial sector has defied the broader commercial property slowdown.

Colliers’ Gavin Bishop, Michael Crombie, Sean Thomson and Trent Gallagher are handling the sale. They declined to comment but they had billed the asset as the first full interest in a premier multi-storey logistics facility to go on the block in the country.

The sale will provide a guide to the value of the new style of multi-level developments that have sprung up over the last year.

South Sydney projects alone include the Goodman Axis Estate at 45 Burrows Rd, Alexandria (16,078sq m), Charter Hall’s ­Ascent on Bourke at 520-530 Gardeners Rd, Alexandria (25,803sq m) and Logos’ 28-30 Burrows Rd, Alexandria (7200sq m).