Keppel circling Charles Sturt University campus in North Sydney for $70m
Education assets are continuing their hot run with Singaporean group Keppel setting the pace as it eyes a $70m acquisition in North Sydney.
Singapore fund manager Keppel is looking to expand its reach in the local education sector with the group circling the Charles Sturt University campus in North Sydney in a deal worth close to $70m.
Keppel already owns a school campus in North Sydney, which it bought from local group Built, and has been on the hunt for new assets. The impending deal shows the attractiveness of the education sector and is a marker for values in the location.
Developer Garry Rothwell’s Winten Property Group put the campus building in North Sydney up for sale in April.
The Group, which Rothwell founded in 1972, is known for developing luxury apartment projects and commercial buildings in Sydney and has a fortune estimated at about $600m.
He has substantial commercial holdings in North Sydney, including the 1 Denison Street tower that houses Nine Entertainment’s headquarters, as well as computing giant Microsoft.
Winten developed that 39-storey complex ahead of the Victoria Cross Metro Station opening, and North Sydney properties are now benefiting from the interest of tenants due to the new infrastructure.
The university property, known as 77 Berry, was marketed by Bevan Kenny, Shirley Fan and Michael Stokes of Stanton Hillier Parker. But they and Keppel declined to comment. Positioned just 50m from the new station, the seven-storey commercial office building covers 5585sq m and is fully leased to Charles Sturt University for more than eight years.
Located at the northern end of Denison Street, 77 Berry has large floor plates, balconies, and four sides of natural light, along with a pedestrian plaza and retail component.
The building has 50 basement car spaces with access from Denison St.
Education is a hot sector. A unit of Singaporean fund manager Cambridge RE Partners in March struck a deal to purchase a building in Sydney’s Kent St, occupied by Central Queensland University, in a deal worth about $111.58m.
Keppel’s private fund, the Keppel Education Asset Fund, in 2023 bolstered its local empire with the acquisition of two education assets in Sydney for a total of $198m. That included the building in North Sydney undertaken by developer Built under a forward purchase agreement worth about $120m. A Reddam kindergarten to year 12 school has now opened in the converted office block.
More Coverage
Originally published as Keppel circling Charles Sturt University campus in North Sydney for $70m
Billion-dollar ‘Paradiso’ towers stall: Sky pool cut, four-year delay
Developers of a billion-dollar development, once billed as the Gold Coast’s biggest ever residential development, say it will go ahead – four years later than planned and without a stand-alone builder.
Gateway on hunt for assets with new fund
After a stellar first fund, the industrial property funds house sees plenty more ways of making money, even as the cycle cools after values jumped during the pandemic.