Brisbane, Auckland office parks hit the market
Two major business parks, one in Brisbane and one in Auckland, have hit the market in the latest test for investment demand for office space on the fringes of CBDs.
On offer in Brisbane is the $400 million Milton Green estate, with six office towers and a retail asset, co-owned by the Dexus Wholesale Property Fund and Sunsuper. The Dexus-run fund took control of its half stake as part of its takeover of the AMP Capital Diversified Property Fund, which has a large queue of redemption requests to address.
In New Zealand, the $275 million Central Park Auckland is being divested by its owners, private equity giant KKR and Oyster Property Group, which acquired it three years ago from Goodman Property Trust.
The CBD-fringe business park opportunities join a $6 billion rush of major towers that have hit the Australian market in recent weeks, making for an intense final quarter of trading, as vendors and investors finally emerge from the pandemic slowdown.
The Auckland business park, which stands on 4.8 hectares and comprises more than 43,000 sq m of space, also comes as New Zealand’s market becomes increasingly familiar to Australian investors and global institutions based here,
Global investment houses including JP Morgan, Blackstone, Invesco are all active in the New Zealand market along with ASX-listed operators such as Scentre, Goodman, Lendlease and fund manager Centuria, which has been expanding its exposure in New Zealand.
Blue-chip tenants including Colgate, Bunnings, Estee Lauder and NZ Transport are among the 69 office tenants across 11 buildings at Central Park Auckland, which is being brokered by Colliers’ Richard Kirke and McVay Real Estate’s Sam McVay and Rob Sewell.
“We have witnessed a significant increase in demand from corporate and government occupiers looking for an alternative to the CBD,” said Mark Schiele, Oyster’s chief executive.
“Central Park is now a thriving community in its own right. The investment made into creating a large outdoor space with entertainment options linked to food and beverage offerings, known as The Green, has proven to be very popular with new and existing occupiers.”
Sam McVay, managing director at McVay Real Estate, said he expected the business park, which has long-term value-add potential, would appeal to Australian-based investors.
In Brisbane, the Milton Green business park, which is being brokered by JLL, stretches across four hectares, with more than 50,000 square metres of commercial space and also has vacant land for future development.
A half stake in the asset was valued at $193 million by AMP Capital before its fund was taken over by Dexus in April. The office park is the second-largest asset to come to market in Brisbane this year, after Dexus puts its premium Blue Tower Complex up for sale in August with hopes of raising $450 million.
“In addition to the existing buildings, Milton Green offers a development site of approximately 8600 square metres which has potential for a significant build-to-rent or build-to-sell residential development. The site also comes with development approval for a 12-level office tower,” said JLL’s Queensland managing director Paul Noonan, who is handling the asset with colleagues Seb Turnbull and Kate Low.
The precinct is 96 per cent occupied, has an average lease expiry of 3.2 years and generates fully leased net income of around $31 million annually.
