Logos ticks Woolworths facility off shopping list
Macquarie Capital-backed property funds manager Logos is buying a major Sydney logistics facility occupied by Woolworths that a Lend Lease-managed fund put on the block earlier this year for about $180 million.
The deal, which is yet to be finalised, would be the largest sale of a Woolworths facility this year, and shows the heat remains in the market after a series of industrial portfolios were sold by landlords including Goodman.
The asset, held by Lend Lease’s APPF Industrial Fund, was chased by local and international groups due to the strong covenant of Woolworths and its near five-year weighted average lease expiry.
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The modern regional distribution centre spans 88,555sqm and has a mix of ambient, temperature-controlled and coolroom space.
Minchinbury, in western Sydney, is viewed as one of the nation’s top industrial investment markets and the property sits on a major 214,500sqm parcel.
Logos boasts the second-largest industrial development pipeline after Goodman, with $1.3 billion slated to be built over the next three years.
It has warehouse clearance of 9m-40m and offers access to the M4 Motorway, M7 Motorway and Great Western Highway.
Logos may also capitalise on the opportunity to extend the warehouse on-site to cater for Woolworths’ future expansion.
The parties and agents Gavin Bishop, Tony Iuliano and Adrian Rowse of Colliers International declined to comment.
Logos is likely to undertake any required works to ensure that the Minchinbury centre remains integral to the Woolworths national supply chain. It is one of seven regional centres nationally for Woolworths and services retail stores in metropolitan Sydney and regional NSW.
The firm has been striking major deals in Australia and China as it bulks up its $2 billion operation. In September, it bought a 21ha site at Marsden Park in northwest Sydney for $40 million as it emerged as the precinct’s first institutional backer.
Logos boasts the second-largest industrial development pipeline after Goodman, with $1.3 billion slated to be built over the next three years.
Logos may also capitalise on the opportunity to extend the warehouse on-site to cater for Woolworths’ future expansion.
In August, the group struck a pre-lease deal with Toll Group to build a retail distribution centre at the Prestons Logistics Estate in western Sydney. Logos that month also struck a $70 million deal with Toll over a facility in the Melbourne suburb of Altona North.
In China, global heavyweights Ivanhoe Cambridge of Canada and US-based CBRE Global Investment Partners committed to investing in the Logos China Logistics Venture.
Like Macquarie Capital, Ivanhoe Cambridge has an equity investment in the Logos business.
The fund announced a second Chinese logistics real estate vehicle this year.
It will own and develop about $US400 million ($538 million) of modern logistics properties in Shanghai and neighbouring cities. Logos is also active elsewhere in Asia.
