This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
HONG Kong-based real estate private equity firm Gaw Capital Partners has bought the Bell City complex in Preston in Melbourne’s northern suburbs from Elanor Investors Group for $157 million.
Elanor has sold the asset after three years, having paid the Deague family’s Asian Pacific Group $142.9 million in December 2014.
“We are pleased to have exchanged contracts for the sale of Bell City, at the culmination of the fund’s investment horizon, and provide a solid return for the fund’s investors,” Chief investment officer Marianne Ossovani said.
Bell City is a hotel, student accommodation and office complex on a 24,214 sqm site. It is located on the site of the former Preston & Northcote Community Hospital (PANCH) which operated on the site from 1960-1998.
The complex comprises six buildings including two hotel towers with an adjacent conference building, a restaurant/conference building, a commercial office building and a student accommodation block.
The site offers a total of 844 accommodation rooms, two restaurants and a cafe, six floors of commercial office space, retail tenancies, 15 conference and function rooms and 652 car parking spaces.
Mantra Group operates the hotels as Mantra Bell City and Breakfree Bell City.
This acquisition comes after Gaw Capital raised US$1.3 billion last year to invest in Asia and Australia.
The fund’s mandate is looking to diversify its portfolio in the region, ranging from logistics, office, luxury residential, co-working spaces and student accommodation.
Australian Property Journal
