A joint venture between Heitman and Marquette buys an older style office building in the Brisbane CBD

The first major office building in the Brisbane CBD has been snapped up with offshore investors expected to figure strongly in the market this year.

A JOINT venture between global real estate investment manager Heitman and local property player Marquette has secured a Brisbane CBD office tower with plans to “transform” the asset.

They bought the 28-level tower at 288 Edward St through JLL’s Luke Billiau and Seb Turnbull following an extensive international expression of interest campaign.

The property was previously owned by Canadian-based Quadra Pacific which also has the 16-level office tower at 133 Mary St on the market. They were both acquired in 1993.

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The joint venture will take on a complete repositioning of the tower, which will incorporate substantial ground floor and podium works and a facade upgrade.

Mr Billiau said that the campaign attracted a strong depth of capital with both domestic and offshore interest in the value-add opportunity.

“It was a truly a unique offering that has the ability to leverage a recovering market and a central location” he said.

“The offshore capital inquiring on Brisbane opportunities has continued to increase and we don’t expect this to change over the course of the year.”

They refused to comment of the specifics of they sale but market sources say 288 Edward St would have sold for about $115 million.

Marquette’s managing director Toby Lewis said the group was focused on value-add retail and office assets in Brisbane and has built a strong track record of repositioning assets in the CBD and near city markets.

“This asset suits our skill set and we have exciting plans to transform the asset from what it is today to be an asset that tenants and buyers will value highly,” he said.

“Our venture has four offshore investors led by Heitman as the cornerstone with groups from Hong Kong and the USA alongside EGW from Japan also investing in the deal.”

Heitman Asia Pacific Private Real Estate Equity Group managing director Skip Schwartz said: “We look forward to working with Marquette in significantly enhancing both the retail and office offering to create a reinvigorated prime CBD building.”