Foreign investors circle Brisbane assets
The Queensland capital is drawing international investors, with Singapore-based ARA Asset Management and US funds manager Heitman believed to be positioning to carve up the $200 million Quadra Pacific office portfolio.
The assets at 133 Mary St and 288 Edward St were put on the block earlier this year, with ARA now chasing the former asset and Heitman thought to be keen on the second.
Seb Turnbull and Luke Billiau of JLL listed the trophy Brisbane office portfolio for sale in July.
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ARA has been active on both the corporate front and buying direct assets. It this year picked up a 19.5 per cent stake in property group Cromwell and also bought a near $200 million tranche of east coast logistics properties from Blackstone.
In recent years it has also shown appetite for office buildings it can reposition. It bought a tower at 320 Pitt St in Sydney’s CBD for $275 million and in 2016 agreed to buy Melbourne’s Southgate complex in a $578 million deal.
Heitman has also shown an appetite for Brisbane assets. In September, it teamed with the Abacus Property Group to buy the K1 city fringe office building in Brisbane for about $170 million.
The Quadra Pacific portfolio had been held 25 years by the Canadian vendor, which decided to sell the buildings to repatriate capital to Canada for other projects.
Both buildings were marketed for their future value-add opportunities, in keeping with Brisbane’s improving leasing market.
Both sport large site areas and a combined $26 million was invested in repositioning and upgrade works in recent years.
They are near Brisbane infrastructure projects — the Queen’s Wharf and Brisbane Live precincts and Dexus’ Waterfront Place — and the proposed Cross River Rail Albert Street Station.
The Mary St tower is a refurbished core-plus building in the city’s top performing office precinct. Five blocks uptown, 288 Edward St holds significant value-add potential as it sits across from Brisbane’s Central station.
Brisbane has drawn office buyers including Charter Hall, Britain’s M&G Real Estate, Goldman Sachs and EG Funds Management this year.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
