Funds managers Acure, AsheMorgan target Brisbane towers in deal wave
The Queensland capital is becoming the destination of choice for tower buyers, as it may be too late to buy in Sydney and too soon in Melbourne.
Property funds managers are making the running in the Queensland capital with Acure looking to buy a riverfront building in the fringe suburb of Milton from Singapore’s Keppel Capital for more than $80m.
The manager has set up the Brisbane Office Trust, which is seeking to raise funds to buy the A-Grade prime Brisbane CBD fringe office tower at 339 Coronation Drive.
Acure is billing the property as having a prime inbound position in one of Brisbane’s top near-city commercial precincts.
The A-Grade offices span about 12,980sq m over five levels, which have campus-size 2,700sq m floor plates. The building is about 93 per cent occupied with a weighted average lease expiry of 3.5 years by income. The property has a diversified tenancy profile with 15 tenants and parking with 315 bays.
The Acure trust will have distributions starting at about 9 per cent per annum and is projected to average 9.6 per cent over five years.
Real estate agencies JLL and Knight Frank are brokering the deal but they and the parties declined to comment.
Keppel bought the complex in 2018 from 151 Property for $40.25m. The sale of the then empty building was at an equivalent yield of 8.2 per cent and the group has since repositioned and leased it up.
Other players are also chasing assets. Funds house AsheMorgan is in due diligence to buy the AM60 complex in Brisbane from the Dexus Wholesale Property Fund for about $200m. The Dexus fund had picked up the A-grade office building, which has offices over 21 levels, from LaSalle Investment Management in 2014 for $161.3m.
The A-grade block has a net lettable area of about 21,263sq m and typical floor plates of 1,049sq m to 1,176sq m. The building was developed by Consolidated Properties and built by Hutchinson Builders. It comprises retail space on the ground and mezzanine floors, commercial space over the first two podium levels and an office tower above.
Others that are active include Sentinel, which has bought two buildings, and Quintessential, which is buying in Fortitude Valley.
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Originally published as Funds managers Acure, AsheMorgan target Brisbane towers in deal wave
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