RSM Australia is moving to 488 Queen St in a deal with naming rights
New Story Bridge views are set for 100 CBD workers while developer Stockwell is adding to its West End pipeline, here are some of Qld’s hottest commercial property deals this week.
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An expanding audit, tax and consulting company which is “bursting at the seams” has secured a new long-term home and building naming rights in the Brisbane CBD.
RSM Australia will move from 340 Adelaide St to 488 Queen St having secured a six-year lease with options over 1400sqm across two interconnected levels.
The move is planned for mid-to-late 2024 and 488 Queen St will become known as RSM House.
RSM’s Managing Partner – Brisbane Steve Healey said with 107 staff and an average year-on-year growth rate of 27 per cent since 2019 they have outgrown their present office.
“We’re bursting at the seams. We have been in our current building for six years and when we moved there we had under 30 staff and it very much fit our purpose,” he said.
“But we very definitely need a new place and while in the past we’ve been flying under the radar we are now well and truly on the radar and when we move into the new building we will have signage rights and a fabulous view of the Story Bridge.”
The deal was struck by the building’s managers Trident Advisory and RSM representatives Deloitte Real Estate.
The new office comes with two outdoor terraces and substantial greenery. It will also have an indoor plant nursery, will provide a green and tranquil office environment.
“This new space will be an appealing environment for employees, with the east-west facing building giving us an unobstructed view of Brisbane’s iconic Story Bridge,” Mr Healey said.
“We have created a multitude of spaces that range from quiet and collaborative areas for workshopping to a new conference area that can fit well over 100 people.”
He said RSM arrived in Brisbane in 2013 and is now ranked the seventh biggest accounting firm in the city.
“We anticipate that by 2030 we will have more than doubled our staff to about 230 to 240,”
Chemist Warehouse owners buy up
A Melbourne private investment group – consisting of two billionaires and their families – has snapped up a retail property in a boom suburb in Brisbane's inner west.
They paid $4.85m for the Petstock Indooroopilly, at 250 Moggill Rd, after a deal struck by
Stonebridge Property Group’s Thomas Proberts on behalf of a private owner.
The property was sold with a five-year net lease to 2027 to Petstock with no further options.
Petstock has occupied the site since 2007 and the sale reflected a 6.23 per cent yield and a land rate of $5988/sqm.
Mr Proberts refused to reveal the new owners but a company search found that the entity that bought the property was controlled by richlisters, the Verrocchi and Gance families.
Late last year Chemist Warehouse – founded by Mario Verrocchi and Jack Gance in 1995 – was sold to Sigma Healthcare in an $8.8bn merger deal.
Mr Proberts said the underlying fundamentals of the property allowed the buyer to look past the relatively short lease term.
“We ran a four to five-week campaign and there was a fair bit if interest and a few offers,” he said.
“Woolworth’s acquisition of Petstock certainly drove a bit of that interest along with the high-profile location which is about 5km from the CBD and adjacent Indooroopilly Shopping Centre.”
The 810sqm site was improved by a 450sqm high clearance freehold retail building.
Mr Proberts said the buyers were attracted to the location.
“It fronts Moggill Rd, which is currently undergoing a $183m upgrade, and from an exposure point of view, a location point of view and being in an area with the ability to attract future national tenants it hits the mark,” he said.
Stockwell ramps up West End development pipeline
Queensland developer Stockwell is sifting through development options for a repositioned inner city property on an elevated site with a significant holding income.
Stockwell paid $19m for the 3321sqm site with three street frontages at 33 Vulture St, West End.
The fully leased mixed-used asset has favourable District Centre zoning and a potential development upside of eight storeys.
Stockwell managing director Mark Stockwell said the company has been developing in West End for 27 years.
“The acquisition of this site is in line with our ongoing residential and retail strategy. Stockwell will commence discussions with council shortly as the site is earmarked for future development,” has said.
The property – with major tenants gym Club Lime and advertising agency Rumble Strategic Creative – currently provides an income of just over $1m annually and was sold with a yield of 5.25 per cent.
JLL’s Tim Jones, who struck the deal with Harry Borger and Elliott O’Shea, said they managed the sale on behalf of a private local investor group which acquired the property in 2022 for $14.5m and repositioned the asset prior to relisting.
“There is significant demand for quality sites in near-city locations such as West End which have well- established amenity, proximity to the CBD and appeal to a broad range of buyer groups,” he said.
“Those with significant holding income, like 33 Vulture Street, allow developers time to work through approval processes and construction challenges without the holding costs tied to unimproved sites.”
Mr Borger said the expressions of interest campaign resulted in multiple competitive offers from investors and developers, both across the eastern seaboard and from overseas.
He said Stockwell had an understanding the site’s locational benefits and true value.
“The recently announced changes to density through South Brisbane, while not directly impacting 33 Vulture St, are certainly having obvious flow-on effects through to West End,” Mr Borger said.
“We’ve noted increased interest from various developer groups and, notably, a number of new
entrants to the Queensland market.”
DSV Air & Sea consolidate in Port of Brisbane
Global transport and logistics leader DSV Air & Sea Pty Ltd will centralise its freight services operations on a greenfield site within the future Port of Brisbane expansion area.
The company has secured a 10-year lease with Port of Brisbane Pty Ltd (PBPL) to deliver a warehouse and container hardstand on a 4.8ha site at Curlew St, Fisherman Islands.
The new $30m facility will enable DSV, an existing Port tenant with additional city sites, to bring its Brisbane road and sea freight service operations to a central location.
McNab has been appointed as principal contractor for the project and construction will commence in late March and is anticipated to complete in late 2024.
The deal with PBPL will deliver a purpose-built facility to include a 16,008sqm warehouse, a two-storey operations office, and about 26,220sqm of container-rated hardstand as well as awnings, and truck manoeuvring and carparking areas.
DSV Air & Sea managing director Paul Thomson said Queensland was “set to erupt” with a variety of infrastructure projects over the next 10 years.
“This new facility will provide DSV with the space and resources needed to service these large scale projects. It will also allow for the expansion of our mining Supply Base to the Asia Pacific Region in particular to Papua New Guinea,” he said.
PBPL chief executive Neil Stephens said as an existing customer, they were able to work together to understand DSV’s specific operational requirements while identifying a greenfield site within our Future Port Expansion area, immediately adjacent to the Port’s terminals and wharves.
“As large, greenfield industrial sites close to both the Port and the CBD become increasingly harder to find, Port of Brisbane works closely with existing and new customers to identify these opportunities” he said.
The deal was struck by Savill’s Shaw Harrison who said: “From initial requirement and preliminary design meetings with Paul (Thomson) and senior management from DSV, we quickly advanced concept designs into a full design and construct brief for their long-term future.”
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Originally published as RSM Australia is moving to 488 Queen St in a deal with naming rights
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