Poly puts two towers in play for $500m
Chinese developer Poly is looking to offload a $500 million half share in two commercial office towers amid a resurgence of deal making in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Shanghai-listed company is rebooting its search for capital partners for its $500-odd million, 27 storey office development at Sydney’s Circular Quay after ASX-listed GPT Group reportedly walked away from investing in the project in February.
The developer is sweetening the capital offering with a half share in another major office project, its 23-storey commercial tower in Melbourne’s Docklands on which it began construction in mid-2019 as a speculative play.
Poly has since signed Myer as an anchor tenant to the A-grade tower at 1000 La Trobe Street. The department store retailer will take 11,000 square metres over five levels for its Melbourne headquarters.
The combined half share in both towers is valued at $500 million, said JLL’s head of international investment Simon Storry who is handling the sale with Rob Sewell and multiple agents from Colliers International.
“Despite the current headwinds, JLL’s recent national campaigns have highlighted the depth of off-shore capital seeking prime real estate,” Mr Storry said.
Poly’s head of asset management Paul Badenhorst said the group “remains confident in Australia’s global gateway CBD markets.”
“Securing partnerships on both projects and the subsequent recycling of capital will enable us to further our real estate investment and asset management expansion plans,” he said.
Poly’s offering comes as another Chinese-backed local developer Landream is reportedly offloading a key city development site where it planned to build a glittering $700 million tower designed by famed architect Zaha Hadid.
The design for the avant-garde, 54-storey tower resembles a series of stacked vases and gained prominence when it signed one of the world’s top luxury hotel operators, the Hong Kong-based Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
Landream’s cluster of assorted offices and shops at 600 Collins Street is understood to be in play to a Sydney-based buyer for around $200 million.
It follows another major deal in Docklands where a group of Chinese investors sold a development site for $67.1 million to a company controlled by Daniel Grollo, who is now based in Sydney.
That three-way deal resulted in the AFL, which in September last year placed a deposit on the block at 685-691 La Trobe Street, helping to negotiate on-selling the site to Mr Grollo.
The economic damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic forced the AFL to rethink its commitment to the 4000 square metre site which sits next to the AFL-owned concourse of Marvel Stadium.
