This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
CENTURIA has sold two assets above prior book value sales premiums, in Sydney and the Gold Coast, reflecting ongoing demand for commercial real estate in close proximity to housing, schools and universities.
The Belltower at 6 Cornwallis Street, South Eveleigh NSW sold with vacant possession to a private investor.
The sale price of $18.25 million reflects a 14% premium, with the 1,48sqm office building having recently undergone extensive refurbishment.
Jonathan Vaughan and Tim Holtsbaum from Knight Frank, alongside Josh Watts and James McCourt from Karbon Property were the appointed to sell the asset.
Originally constructed in 1887 as part of the Eveleigh Locomotive Workshop’s Manager Office, The Belltower was part of a broader regeneration masterplan in the early-2000s.
The masterplan transformed the area into a technology precinct which now includes tenants such as the Commonwealth Bank, Channel 7, CSIRO’s Data61, Cicada Innovations, and the University of Sydney’s Institute of Agriculture and School of Life and Environmental Sciences.
The Belltower was part of Centuria’s unlisted closed-ended Australian Technology Park Fund, having been acquired in April 2016 for $3.3 million.
Since the funds inception in April 2016 it has provided a 238% total return.
Meanwhile, the Papilio Early Learning and Kindergarten-operated childcare centre at 60 Investigator Drive in Queensland’s Robina fold at auction for $8.8 million.
Selling to a private investor, the sale price reflects a 4.7% premium to book values and a 21% premium to the 2020 purchase price.
Natalie Couper from Burgess Rawson was the auctioneer in the sale of the asset.
The childcare centre is 100% occupied on a net lease term, with CPI-lined positive net reviews and provides a 12.8-year WALE.
The Queensland asset is located within the masterplanned Robina Health Precinct and benefits from proximity to the Robina Hospital and Robina Town Centre’s retail and leisure precinct, while also sitting within 80 metres from the Robina State High School in the southwest Gold Coast’s school catchment.
The Robina childcare centre was part of the Centuria Diversified Property Fund, which is an open-ended unlisted fund.
Since its inception in June 2016 the fund has provided a 10.8% per annum total return.
“The South Eveleigh and Robina assets are exemplary of this strategy and further benefitted on long-term regeneration programmes. These assets lend themselves to the work-live-play rhetoric, which we believe was appealing to their new owners,” said Ross Lees, head of funds management at Centuria.
“By achieving above book value premiums, we believe our value-add strategy has been successfully executed, creating value for our unlisted funds’ unitholders.”
