High-flyer Aviator Capital swoops on Brisbane Club building

Demand for office blocks in the Queensland capital is holding up and values are also solid.

Listed real estate managers Charter Hall Group and Abacus Property Group have won a suitor for the Brisbane Club building, with Aviator Capital circling the $70m-plus asset.

The deal is another showing that demand for office blocks in the Queensland capital is holding up and values are also solid.

The pair put the complex on the block this year after two years of ownership because both are focused on other initiatives. The pair are still working on a podium extension at 201 Elizabeth St in Sydney’s CBD, but Abacus is also focused on the spin-off of its self-storage portfolio.

JLL’s Paul Noonan and Seb Turnbull and CBRE’s Bruce Baker and Tom Phipps are brokering the deal, but declined to comment, as did the parties. But the deal represents another step up for Aviator Capital after the fund manager last year bought an office tower in central Brisbane’s North Quarter precinct from Kyko for about $50m. That purchase, of 193 North Quay, was Aviator Capital’s fifth acquisition in Queensland and first in the Brisbane CBD.

The Brisbane move would also mark a profitable exit for the vendors.

241 Adelaide Street.

In 2021, Charter Hall and Abacus Property unveiled the CHAB Office Trust consortium, which struck a deal to acquire the leasehold of 241 Adelaide St for $31.5m from the Australian Unity Office Fund.

The consortium simultaneously entered into a conditional contract with the Brisbane Club to acquire the freehold interest, for consideration of $32m, subject to a lease back of up to five years plus options.

Members of one of the leading Brisbane private clubs voted overwhelmingly to sell the freehold title to their CBD office tower home.

The property comprises about 10,107sq m of net lettable area plus parking for 85 cars, on the corner of Adelaide St and the Anzac Square public park open space.

The complex in the Golden Triangle is one of only four properties on the city’s prized Post Office Square. The tower sports a curtain glass facade, column-free floorplates and side core configuration allowing for easy subdivision of floors. It has excellent natural light and park views, with 42m of frontage to Post Office Square.

The building has performed strongly through varied leasing cycles and has a multi-let income stream with limited major expiry risk.

Other deals are progressing in Brisbane. Canadian funds giant Brookfield has Quintessential Equity undertaking due diligence on the skyscraper at 240 Queen St that it is offloading for about $270m.

Brisbane has experienced a run of sales and the broad repricing of office towers, which derailed several deals last year as interest rates jumped. But now the market is more stabilised.