23 January 2017

Centuria divests 200 Creek Street, Brisbane

Centuria Property Funds today announced that it has sold its commercial office tower at 200 Creek Street, Brisbane, for $38.7 million. The property has been purchased by Sentinel Property Group.

Jason Huljich, CEO of Unlisted Property at Centuria, said:

“We purchased the property in 2011, and since then we have carried out a series of upgrades and refurbishments designed to make the building more appealing to tenants. As a result, the property was taken to market with an occupancy rate of over 95%, with a weighted average lease expiry of almost four years, which made it particularly attractive to buyers,” said Mr Huljich.

“During the past 18 months, our asset management team has done a phenomenal job, completing leasing transactions over approximately 45% of the net lettable area to quality tenants including the Queensland State Government and Ramsay Health Care,” he explained.

The ten storey, A-grade building is located in the Brisbane suburb of Spring Hill. It has approximately 7,603 sqm of net lettable area, spread over three ground floor tenancies and nine upper levels of office accommodation.

The building’s elevated position and distinctive architecture makes 200 Creek Street a prominent office tower in the northern precinct of the CBD. Looking forward it is well-located from a potential re-development perspective, as a result of the planning provisions included within Brisbane City Plan 2014 and the proposed Draft Spring Hill Neighbourhood Plan.

Mr Huljich concluded by saying that he foresees good opportunities for commercial property investors in 2017.

“Looking forward into 2017, we are confident there will be some good opportunities in the major metropolitan markets – in particular Sydney and Melbourne, although we are also looking carefully at our options in Brisbane and Canberra.

“Our investment strategy has always been primarily asset-driven, which means we are open to all markets and properties where we see the potential to buy well, add value and achieve strong long term returns for our investors,” said Mr Huljich.

The sale was managed by Peter Court and Mike Walsh from CBRE and Seb Turnbull and Luke Billiau at JLL.

“In a market starved of opportunities it was not unexpected that an asset of this quality attracted a broad profile of capital. Whilst the headline vacancy figures remain elevated for the Brisbane CBD, 200 Creek Street had proven its lettability which was reflected in the depth of investors active,” said JLL’s Luke Billiau.

Peter Court from CBRE said “Centuria has done a great job within a challenging leasing market to position the property for sale with the asset boasting 95% occupancy upon the launch of the sales campaign. This income security and the price point attracted spirited bidding from local and interstate investment groups.”