CBD Commercial Property News

A clutch of deep-pocketed local and international investors have emerged in the running for a half-stake in the $1.8 billion Chifley Tower and Plaza in the heart of Sydney’s financial district, with Lendlease and possibly ISPT in the Australian brigade.

Shimao Group, controlled by Chinese-Australian billionaire Hui Wing Mao, is joining the ranks of Chinese property players selling Sydney towers by offering a half stake in its $800 million-plus tower next to Hyde Park. 

Superannuation fund-backed property house ISPT has won a tender to develop a 32-storey vertical campus in the heart of Melbourne as property companies seek to ride the booming higher education sector.

Fund manager Trilogy is expanding its interests in the Brisbane commercial property arena, ­announcing it will acquire a near-city office building for $25.5 million.

One of Asia’s wealthiest private groups, Legend Land, an associate of Worldwide Hotels, has plunged into the Sunshine State for the first time, buying Brisbane’s ibis Styles hotel in a deal worth about $100 million. 

Melbourne’s apartment market is showing further cracks with a Charter Hall fund snapping up a $140 million site that had been slated for a residential tower and hoping to turn it into an office building.

Co-working juggernaut WeWork is pushing ahead with its national rollout, signing a deal for another location in Melbourne that will be its second-largest in Australia.

Charter Hall has emerged as the prime contender for the Mary Street tower in Brisbane’s central business district that is being sold by QIC Global Real Estate for about $300 million.

The listed Event Hospitality & Entertainment has an ambitious development pipeline that could see it build at least two major towers in George St in the heart of Sydney’s CBD.