This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
SHIFTING consumer appetites towards online grocery and meal deliveries has led global real estate investment, development, and property manager Hines to make its first cold storage property acquisition in Australia.
The purchase of the 11,175 sqm facility in Ormeau, on the Gold Coast, was made through Hines Asia Property Partners (HAPP), the firm’s flagship commingled Asia Pacific core-plus fund.
The deal marks the second acquisition by HAPP in Queensland and the seventh industrial and logistics asset acquired by the fund in Australia.
“We are seeing increased demand for the cold storage sector not just in Australia, but across Asia Pacific as consumer appetite continues to shift post-COVID towards online grocery and meal deliveries,” said Chiang Ling Ng, chief investment officer, Asia at Hines.
“Investments such as these are vital as economies are recognising the importance of addressing the shortage in supply of reliable refrigerated facilities, particularly for the storage of fresh produce, vaccines and other non-discretionary goods, so Hines is looking forward to bringing our best-in-class global expertise to develop cold-storage spaces like this across Asia Pacific.”
Located at 31 Lahrs Road, the property sits amongst other cold storage facilities and is adjacent to the M1 motorway and can be accessed in both directions via the Lahrs Road on and off ramps, giving access to the Gold Coast and Brisbane.
“Australia is a leader, along with China and India, when it comes to growing demand for cold storage space. In addition to the macroeconomic tailwinds experienced by the sector, new building technologies and standards are reducing the outdated perceived risk of cold storage investment,” said Alysia Reilly, head of industrial and logistics, Australia at Hines.
Demand for cold storage across Asia Pacific is expected to grow by at least 20% over the next three years, according to a JLL report released in October, and Australia is falling behind other advanced economies when it comes to capacity of cold storage facilities. Australia has 0.38 cubic metres of refrigerated warehouse capacity per urban resident, compared to an average of 0.47 cubic metres across all advanced economies.
“The development at Ormeau is a strategic opportunity to capitalise on the current dislocation in supply and demand dynamics, with the latest leasing statistics showing an extremely tight leasing market across the entire east coast of Australia,” Reilly said.
Charter Hall offloaded nine cold storage and distribution facilities leased to Woolworths subsidiary PFD Foods at a portfolio auction in December for a total of $12.3 million, quickly following former Queensland premier Campbell Newman’s Arcana Capital buying a Cassowary Coast warehouse occupied by packaging and logistics giant Visy and Australia’s largest banana producer, Mackays, for $6.6 million.
Since 2020, Hines has secured 11 logistics assets across the Asia Pacific, totalling 633,192 sqm over seven cities in Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.
Globally, Hines has invested nearly US$8 billion in the industrial and logistics sector across more than 5.5 million sqm.
