Charter Hall buys 737 Bourke Street, Docklands, for $192 million
Charter Hall is spending $192 million on a modern office in Melbourne’s Docklands.
The 10-storey building at 737 Bourke Street was listed last October by Malaysian-backed pension fund Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan), also known as KWAP and Retirement Fund Incorporated, which paid the Grollo family’s Equiset $113 million for it, in 2010.
Based on the annual rental return, the asset is selling on a yield of just over 5 per cent.
It includes about 19,028 square metres of A-grade office space leased to occupants including Lion Dairy and Drinks, the Victorian Building Authority and Opteon Property Group.
Equiset developed 737 Bourke Street in 2008.
The sale to Charter Hall was first reported in this AFR item today.
JLL’s Nick Rathgeber and Leigh Melbourne represented the vendor.
The same agents recently co-sold a portfolio of four adjoining investments known as the 80 Collins Street precinct, in the city’s east end, to Dexus, for $1.476 billion.
JLL is also responsible for the $200 million-plus sale of 31 Queen Street to Boston-based AEW Capital Management last month.
Charter Hall has been an active property purchaser over the past nine months.
In October it paid Singapore’s Fragrance Group $140 million for 555 Collins Street – an office next door to another commercial asset it owns, 55 King Street.
It also paid $55 million for the National Archives of Australia office-warehouse in Sydney’s Villawood following an off-market deal.
In November, Charter Hall paid the federal government $118.5 million for two industrial investments occupied by Australian Border Force in Banksmeadow, 12 kilometres south of the Sydney CBD, and Bulla, 29 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.
The Coburg Drive-In theatre, in Coburg North, was also snapped up by Charter Hall. It paid Village Roadshow $12.5 million for this asset, which has long-term redevelopment potential.
Just prior to Christmas, Charter Hall’s Retail REIT paid ISPT $74 million for the Campbellfield Plaza, a retail investment, 16 kilometres north of the Melbourne city centre. It bought the Rockdale Plaza in Sydney’s south, for $142 million last month.
Charter Hall also recently spent $73.5 million to acquire a portfolio of 13 childcare centres – some of which haven’t yet been developed – in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
Earlier this week, The Australian reported that Charter Hall’s Direct property arm was paying Blackstone $82.25 million for 121 King William Street in the Adelaide CBD.
