DWS snaps up stake in Coles cold storage

Frasers has sold a half stake in $270m Coles cold storage ­facility in Brisbane to German wealth manager DWS

The cold storage facility was purpose-built for Coles

The Singapore-listed Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust has sold a half stake in a near $270 million Coles cold storage ­facility in Brisbane to German wealth manager DWS in what has been billed as one of the largest-ever industrial sales.

The Frasers fund sold the stake in the complex at 99 Sandstone Place in Parkinson for $134.2m, a 15.3 per cent premium over the asset’s value of $116.4m when it floated in Singapore in 2016.

Frasers fund manager Robert Wallace said DWS would enter a partnership to co-own and co-manage the property. Coles was the fund’s single largest tenant but its exposure will be cut from 7 per cent to 3.6 per cent.

“This in line with our active asset management strategy, with the divestment proceeds providing [the fund] with greater financial flexibility,” he said.

DWS has a proven track ­record in Australia’s industrial sector and owns other cold storage logistics assets.

The group’s head of real estate for Asia Pacific, Victoria Sharpe, said the property provided an ­attractive opportunity to acquire a super prime, refrigerated, logistics facility. It also marked the first ­investment in Australia for the DWS open-ended Asia core real estate strategy.

Constructed in 2008, the property is located in an industrial precinct to the south of Brisbane, benefiting from good transport connectivity to the Mount Lindesay Highway, Logan Motorway and the Gateway Motorway. With a total gross lettable area of 54,245sq m it was purpose-built for Coles and comprises a cross-dock, regional distribution facility with 3285sq m of office space and 50,960sq m of temperature-controlled and ancillary warehousing.

The Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust is a Singapore-listed real estate investment trust with a portfolio comprising 82 logistics and industrial properties, worth about $3 billion, concentrated within major logistics and industrial markets in Australia, Germany and The Netherlands.

The deal was brokered by JLL’s Tony Iuliano, Adrian Rowse and Gary Hyland, who said it was the largest individual industrial asset transaction by value based on the property’s full value. The complex is fully leased to Coles with 13.1 years remaining on the lease term, and the cold-storage industry is booming.

Other major distribution centre deals over the past year include a Coles centre in Heathwood, Queensland, selling for $105m, and a Kmart centre in Truganina, Victoria, for $119m.

Meanwhile in Melbourne, Frasers Property Australia and ESR Australia have bought a 4.67ha site in Melbourne’s Mulgrave and secured Nissan Motor Co Australia as the anchor tenant.

The partners plan a $400m business park on the Wellington Road site.