Investors double their money in SA’s biggest warehouse deal
Investors have more than doubled their money in just six years after a huge logistics facility at the Port of Adelaide sold for $216 million in the state’s biggest ever industrial deal.
Its seller is boutique Melbourne-based syndicator Quintessential which typically swoops on opportunistic and sometimes counter-cyclical deals across the commercial real estate sector. It bought the Port of Adelaide Distribution Centre in 2019 for $80 million from Stockland.
The fund manager pumped in another $19 million to transform and update the vast warehousing site before selling it this week to ASX-listed fund manager Centuria.
Through that transaction, the internal rate of return hit 21 per cent and the investment multiple 2.53 per cent, meaning the wholesale and high-net worth investors in the property syndicate made around two-and-half times their initial investment.
“Quintessential recognised the potential of PADC in 2019 when no one else did. Under our ownership, the asset underwent strategic capital upgrades that drove strong tenant attraction and retention,” said Shane Quinn, Quintessential’s co-founder and executive director.
“Knowing when to exit is just as critical as knowing when to invest.”
Just 12 kilometres from the Adelaide CBD and 7 kilometres from the port, the PADC is one of the city’s largest single-ownership industrial estates, spanning 319,500 square metres and comprising 174,600 square metres of space across 13 warehouses. The $19 million capital works program delivered two new warehouses to the site.
As well, Quintessential brought in a line-up of top corporate names as new tenants. In the last six years Visy Logistics, San Miguel, Toll Logistics, SET Logistics, and Paramount Browns have all taken up space there.
Last year, the Environment Protection Authority signed a 10-year lease at the facility.
A fresh surge of growth is expected to flow through Port Adelaide’s industrial market in coming years to support the construction and operation of the AUKUS nuclear submarine program.
The sale was managed by Colliers’ Gavin Bishop, Sean Thomson, Tom Barrett and Paul Tierney alongside CBRE’s Chris O’Brien, Andrew Bell and Paul McKay.
