Marprop enters Adelaide with $70m tower deal
Sydney-based investment manager Marprop Real Estate Investors has acquired a refurbished office building in Adelaide’s CBD for about $70 million from Blackrock in an off-market transaction.
The deal was struck on a yield of about 6 per cent. Blackrock recently completed a big refurbishment of the 14-storey building at 99 Gawler Street. About 30 per cent of the 10,537-square-metre tower is leased to South Australia’s Department of Infrastructure and Transport.
Built in 1984, the Gawler Street building was formerly called Statewide House. Colliers advised on the transaction.
Purchased on behalf of an offshore institution, it is Marprop’s first acquisition in South Australia. The deal tops off about $600 million worth of transactions across Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne by Marprop over the last year.
“Our entry into the Adelaide market with such a centrally located, high-quality asset has the Marprop team enthused by the opportunities to capitalise on our tried and tested friction-free leasing offering,” Marprop’s executive director, Evan Gallagher, said.
“South Australia has shown itself as a robust office market that has performed well in recent times as tenant interest shows growth and diversification. The Marprop portfolio of long-term income producing assets continues to grow to more than $1 billion in Australia.”
The Adelaide deal follows on from several high-profile acquisitions involving Marprop. Last October, it joined another local company, Futuro Capital, and private equity giant KKR to acquire one of Sydney’s best-known hotels, the five-star Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, in a $315 million transaction.
The following month, Marprop teamed up with Futuro Capital again to take over the city campus of Victoria University in the Melbourne CBD in an $80.8 million deal.
Marprop also controls a commercial building at 541 St Kilda Road, which is occupied entirely by Alfred Health following one of the largest single leasing deals in Melbourne last year.
