AIMS Financial Group eyes Woolworths headquarters site in $450m-plus play

The famed Woolworths headquarters building in Sydney’s northwestern suburbs has caught the eye of AIMS Financial Group.

The coming deal for the Woolworths site is the largest Sydney suburban office trade since 2019.

The famed Woolworths headquarters building in Sydney’s northwestern suburbs has caught the eye of AIMS Financial Group, which is circling the asset in a deal worth more than $450m.

A transaction struck at this level would show that large-scale office complexes have not only weathered the crisis but have come through it ahead of expectations.

Woolworths, headed by chief executive Brad Banducci, is considered one of the best tenants in corporate Australia as the company has committed long-term to the area.

If AIMS can finalise a deal it could also expand the existing complex or put new offices on the site as there is substantial surplus space. Values of suburban offices are also rising on the expectation that workers will be back behind their desks by next year.

AIMS is a diversified financial services and investment group active in mortgages, securitisation, investment banking, funds management, property investment and stock broking.

It runs the Singapore-listed AIMS APAC REIT, which this month issued $S250m in subordinated perpetual securities, giving it the firepower to buy, but the firm has a variety of capital sources.

The trust owns warehouses, distribution centres, business parks and factories across the region. In Australia it owns a 49 per cent share in the Optus Centre in Sydney’s Macquarie Park and the telco is on a fresh 12-year lease that started in July. It also owns a smaller property on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

The office complex was put on the block in June by Australian-Korean fund manager Inmark Asset Management. Its move to capitalise on global demand for long-leased office assets by putting the national Woolworths complex up for sale appears to have paid off.

The move came amid an exodus by Korean investors, who were selling commercial properties they bought earlier in the boom for steep profits, with the pandemic only trimming returns, as buyers were still snapping up suburban buildings.

Other players have already capitalised with another Korean group of investors, represented by AIP Asset Management, selling a $780m portfolio of four buildings to the acquisitive Charter Hall.

The South Korean investors advised by ­Inmark picked up the Woolworths building in a landmark deal worth $336.45m in 2016.

The coming deal is the largest Sydney suburban office trade since 2019, when Parramatta’s Jessie Street Centre traded for $415m to Charter Hall and Singaporean sovereign fund GIC, and Chatswood’s Zenith Centre was acquired for $438m by Starwood Capital and Arrow Capital Partners.

James Parry, Flint Davidson, Stuart McCann and Michael Andrews of CBRE and Adam Woodward, James Mitchell and James Barber of Colliers are handling the sale of the 44,911sq m Woolworths campus. But they and the parties declined to comment.

The 1 Woolworths Way, Bella Vista, property is positioned on 9ha of land. It comprises three office buildings, linked by a central atrium. There is about 28,000sq m of office floor area available to be further developed under a master plan.

The architecturally designed campus sports large, efficient floorplates spanning more than 3000sq m, an on-site Woolworths Metro supermarket, a gym, cafe, sporting facilities, a significant data centre and more than 3000 car spaces.

It has a weighted lease term of 10 years from November 2021.

The property is well positioned to capitalise on the Sydney Northwest metro line and the heightened focus on hub-and-spoke locations such as Norwest, which offer high quality office space.