Fund manager Charter Hall has swooped on two key training facilities for the Australian Border Force and the Australian Federal Police in an industrial property deal worth about $120 million.
The acquisitions, to be held within Charter Hall’s platform of managed funds, are consistent with the fund manager’s strategy of investing into government-leased industrial assets that have long tenancies.
The two facilities – on leases to the federal government of 15 and 25 years – were designed, built and developed by Qanstruct, a private platform that focuses on warehouses, factories and offices, along with education and specialist facilities.
JLL’s Tony Iuliano, Adrian Rowse and Matt Ellis were appointed to handle the portfolio.
On McPherson Street in Banksmeadow, the Sydney facility has a building area of almost 3000 square metres on almost 23,000sq m of land. It was completed this year and its tenants are the Australian Border Force, the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.
The Melbourne facility at Bulla was completed in 2011 and is the headquarters of the national dog detector program. It is much larger, with close to 8000sq m of building set on 385,000sq m of land. Its tenants are the ABF and the AFP.
Led by David Harrison, Charter Hall has been steadily increasing its portfolio of industrial assets while adding to its development pipeline in that sector.
In line with that, in April Charter Hall acquired a 58-hectare parcel of land in Melbourne’s south-west industrial heartland with the potential to develop a $330 million logistics park.
Strong year for trading
Another example of Charter Hall’s recent effort in the industrial sector is the development of a fully automated distribution centre for Woolworths at Dandenong South, which will dramatically lift the grocery giant’s productivity.
Trading in the industrial property market has been strong this year. Last week Singapore-listed Mapletree Logistics Trust snapped up a Coles distribution centre for $105 million.
The property at Heathwood in Queensland comprises a major distribution centre with of 55,739sq m of space set on a large land holding of 151,600sq m.
JLL’s Tony Iuliano, Gary Hyland and Adrian Rowse handled that deal.
Other offshore investors are also competing for assets. In July, Singapore’s Ascendas REIT Australia acquired an empty 16,000sq m industrial facility in Melbourne’s eastern suburb of Scoresby for $16.25 million.
That property was the former corporate headquarters of homeware giant Decor, which had the facility purpose built in 1979.
