Gowings bids farewell to Sydney as it offloads offices and heads north
Family-run retail manager and developer Gowings is bidding farewell to Sydney and selling its suite of harbourside offices to focus on its assets in Coffs Harbour.
Having closed down its landmark shop and office tower on the corner of Market and George Streets in 2006, the family-owned business is now divesting four strata office suites along Jones Bay Wharf in Pyrmont on the city fringe.
The group bought the offices 17 years ago, but with its business now focused on northern NSW, the assets are no longer needed.
JLL’s NSW director of sales and investments, Peter Seeto, and executive Willem Watson have been appointed to sell suites 17, 19, 21 and 24 at Jones Bay Wharf, 26-32 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont on behalf of the Gowings family.
Mr Seeto said the suites were purchased by the Gowings family in 2003 and housed the team that ran the shopping centres and investments/financial services side of the business.
“The group will now relocate all of their back of house operations to their head office, based in Coffs Harbour,” Mr Seeto said.
“The high levels of investment activity into the Sydney fringe suburbs has resulted in Pyrmont being one of the most tightly held fringe markets in Australia. This sizeable and flexible opportunity is a scarce offering, with the ability to be purchased in one line or as individual lots.”
Mr Watson said average secondary net effective rents in western fringe suburbs, including Pyrmont and Ultimo, had increased by 17.3 per cent since the first quarter of 2015.
He said this was the strongest rental growth of the 19 Australian office markets monitored by JLL Research. This growth was a combination of strong secondary net face rental growth and a sharp reduction in incentives, which dropped as low as 9.8 per cent in second quarter of 2019.
The agents said limited space options and strong demand for quality space had exerted upward pressure on rents in recent times.
“However, the current COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in dampened rental growth as incentives have risen,” they said.
In another deal, Colliers International is undertaking the sale of a mixed-use development site within the Leppington Town Centre, in Sydney’s south west.
The two hectare site at 113 Rickard Road, Leppington is expected to generate about $600 per square metre, according to agents Joe Sacco and Frank Oliveri of Colliers International.
Mr Oliveri said the site is just 800 meters from the Leppington train station and sits within the Austral and Leppington North Precinct, which is estimated to potentially house up to 17,350 new homes, and neighbours a recently proposed supermarket development by Woolworths.
“113 Rickard Road, Leppington represents a scarce and limited opportunity to capitalise availability of prime mixed-used development opportunities within the south-west growth corridor,” Mr Oliveri said.
