Chinese buyer checks in at iProsperity's Novotel, Century City
Asian investment firm iProsperity has found a Chinese-backed buyer for two linked properties in suburban Melbourne, the Century City Walk Shopping Centre and the adjoining 200-room Novotel Melbourne hotel, in a $150 million deal.
Title documents show the buyer, Chaolong Developments, to have links through a director to a Chinese provincial developer, Runjiang Investment Group, a Shijiazhuang-based developer from Hebei province in China’s north.
The latest deal involves the acquisition of a joined mall and hotel in Glen Waverley, a landmark asset in Melbourne’s south-east, which iProsperity put on the market in April.
Led by Michael Gu and one of the busier players in the market, iProsperity invests on behalf of ultra-high-net-worth Asian investors.
The platform’s divestment decision comes less than two years after buying the retail mall on Springvale Road for $45 million.
The mall purchase had followed soon after iProsperity’s acquisition of the hotel next door, a deal struck at the auspicious price of $73,666,666.66 from a syndicate of Sydney property players which included financier Phil Green.
Mr Gu’s platform appointed CBRE’s Mark Wizel, Lewis Tong and Josh Rutman, and Savills’ Michael Simpson and Vasso Zographou to broker the assets.
Mr Wizel declined to comment specifically on the transaction but noted there had been strong interest in the property, especially from Asian-based buyers, indicating the depth of appetite still in the market.
The acquisition by the Chinese ownership vehicle, Chaolong Developments, follows Runjiang Investment Group’s debut in the local market, buying a prominent St Kilda Road tower in a record $163 million deal.
Runjiang is now the sole owner of 509 St Kilda Road through nomination from the initial buyer, private investor Michael Xie.
Back in China, Runjiang boasts an impressive portfolio of development projects in northern China since it was founded in 2012.
Together, the Novotel Melbourne hotel and the Century City Walk Shopping Centre occupy a a 10,308-square-metre site. Century Walk has a net passing income of $2.9 million a year from tenants including Village Cinema, Strike Bowling, and the Pancake Parlour. The Accor-operated Novotel, has a current annual income of $5.1 million.
