Centuria Capital to ride AUKUS demand with $220m industrial play in Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide Distribution Centre is being sold by Quintessential Equity
Listed funds management house Centuria Capital is poised to add to its industrial property holdings by purchasing the Port Adelaide Distribution Centre for about $220m.
The impending deal will not only boost the company’s holdings but will also show that demand remains strong for prime industrial properties, which have remained in demand this year despite a price reset.
Buyers are backing the durability of demand for space in the sector in the face of rising vacancy rates in some areas, but the SA complex is expected to benefit from the AUKUS pact as it sits near key shipbuilding facilities.
Centuria has also been active in the industrial property market, and in May teamed with US giant BGO to buy $200m worth of warehouses in Sydney from Goodman Group. They comprise about 45,000sq m of prime industrial space in tightly held urban infill markets where the vacancy rate is just 2.7 per cent.
Centuria joint chief executive Jason Huljich said at the time that the company would “continue to seek opportunities across tightly held industrial markets to grow the partnership”. He declined to comment on the latest move but flagged international capital was seeking to harness the strong domestic industrial sector tailwinds, particularly within infill markets which benefit from proximity to households and businesses.
Centuria also added to its holdings in the last mile logistics sector in May by picking up an asset near the Port of Melbourne for its $500m mandate from US powerhouse Starwood Capital.
The overhauled complex is being sold off by Melbourne-based property developer and investor Quintessential, with the sale to reflect a bumper profit for the group’s investors after the manager expanded the property and lifted its performance.
Quintessential paid Stockland $80m to buy the expansive 32ha property in 2019, and then expanded and upgraded facilities across the site, including most recently investing $19m into two new warehouses.
Colliers and CBRE are handling the sale which drew strong interest from local institutional investors and offshore groups. But they and the parties declined to comment.
Quintessential chief executive Justin Mills said when the asset went on the market that interest was expected due to the scale of the property and its proximity to the major AUKUS defence hub around the Osborne shipyards.
The 32ha landholding sports more than 175,000sq m of improvements across 13 freestanding warehouse facilities. Quintessential built some new warehouses and boosted rents from around $55/m to about $90/m a metre on the old stock.
