This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
TELSTRA will partially decommission and sell off an inner Sydney telephone exchange, with hoping to reap around $20 million from a site that is destined to be snapped up by a developer.
A portion of the Redfern Telephone Exchange at 103-109 George Street is currently owned by Telstra and the asset is being offered to the market via a sale and leaseback to the major telco while it decommissions the site and moves required infrastructure into an adjacent building.
The circa 4,000 sqm building rises seven storeys from a 1,260 sqm block, and its 360-degree view corridors are likely to be protected in the long term due to the heritage constraints of the surrounding properties.
Knight Frank agents Will Brassil, Andrew Harford and James Masselos have the listing.
Brassil said the property would likely be redeveloped, with the E1 local centre zoning permitting a range of future options, including residential, student accommodation, co-living, traditional office or a medical development,” he said.
“The Redfern property is a key site in the context of Sydney’s inner-city fringe, given that the current building envelope is already over-code and therefore there’s underlying value in the existing improvements.
“Given the site’s significance, we anticipate interest from both local and offshore groups seeking to capitalise on the property’s unique combination of scale, planning potential and income.”
Harford said there has been renewed demand from numerous local and offshore developers for inner city sites like George Street, as group re-enter the market in anticipation that 2025 will foster an improved macro-economic environment.
“Enquiry from offshore capital, especially from South-East Asia, has markedly increased and is driving considerable pricing tension with Australian-domiciled groups.”
Telstra underwent an intensive property capitalisation program several years ago, seeking to monetise up to $2 billion of assets to strengthen its balance sheet.
That saw Telstra establish a $1.43 billion unlisted property trust comprised of 37 of its properties, and sell a 49% share to Charter Hall Long Wale REIT, the sale of the 76-78 Pitt Street office tower in the Sydney CBD for $281.5 million to the same trust, divestment of the Edison Exchange building in Brisbane, for $57 million.
It then went on to sell a data centre site in Melbourne’s south-east suburb of Clayton for $416.7 million, and then more recently offloaded a 2.3-hectare parcel in the same suburb to Monash University for around $30 million.
