Pep Rocca’s Curated Capital acquires office tower at 45 Pirie St

Pep Rocca’s Curated Capital has acquired a Pirie St office tower, with plans for a $25m upgrade designed to attract new tenants.

Property developer Pep Rocca has pounced on a Pirie St office tower, with plans for a $25m upgrade designed to attract new tenants.

About 75 per cent of the former home to the state Attorney-General’s department has been vacant since the department’s move to Charter Hall’s GPO Exchange tower in 2019.

It is understood Mr Rocca’s property funds management firm Curated Capital will pay a little more than $75m for the 18-storey, 20,000sq m building, representing a significant discount to the $105m Singapore’s AEP Investment Management paid for it back in 2017.

The deal comes hot on the heels of Quintessential Equity’s $73m acquisition of nearby Telstra House, which is also facing a large vacancy once Telstra relocates to Charter Hall’s $450m development at 60 King William St later this year.

Australasian Property Developments managing director Pep Rocca.

Quintessential is planning a $30 million refurbishment, including a revamp of the ground floor lobby, new end-of-trip facilities and upgrades to the lifts and facade.

The battle for tenants comes as Adelaide’s CBD office market faces a six-year high in vacancies, jumping to 16.1 per cent in January according to the latest Property Council figures.

However, Mr Rocca said tenant enquiries remained strong and he was confident of filling the building following major upgrade works.

“We’re going to do a full upgrade including new foyer, end-of-trip - we’re going to spend approximately $25m on it and bring it back to premium A-grade,” he said.

“We have extensive interest from tenants and we’re obviously going to pursue that now and meet the market in the incentives space.

“We think we can differentiate the building to many other buildings in Adelaide because we are spending a lot of capital on it and I consider it a premium location.

“Our end-of-trip will be a million dollar end-of-trip and we’re looking at putting a high quality state of the art foyer as well - really making a statement on Pirie St.”

The sale also comes with a 1000sq m development site fronting Gawler Place.

Mr Rocca said there were longer term plans to develop that site for offices or apartment-hotel style accommodation with multi-deck car parking.

Elsewhere, the first stage of Mr Rocca’s $110m COMO apartment, townhouse, retail and office development in Norwood is nearing completion in April, coinciding with the start of construction on the $95m ORTA apartments further west on The Parade, opposite the Norwood Hotel.

There are plans for a $25m upgrade of the office tower at 45 Pirie St.

Mr Rocca said about 75 per cent of the 64 luxury apartments in ORTA had been sold, with prices starting from about $900,000.

And further west on The Parade, Mr Rocca is drawing up plans for another apartment project, on the former Beaumont Tiles site on the corner of Sydenham Rd.

He said there was strong interest for luxury apartments, from both local and interstate buyers, and he was exploring opportunities across the city and inner suburbs.

“I’d like to keep developing the high streets of Adelaide - the Prospect Rds of the world, The Parade, King William, Unley,” he said.

“And in the city I’d like to do some high-end stuff but it’s about finding the right location, along the parklands, that sort of stuff.

“Build-to-rent is probably another area we’ll look at.”