Rare Queen Street Mall option lures Taiwanese group
A TAIWANESE-backed investor and developer has snapped up one of the Queen Street Mall’s rarely offered assets.
Fund manager QIC confirmed the Shayher Group has exchanged contracts for the $395 million purchase of the Q&A Centre on the corner of the Mall and Albert St in the heart of the Brisbane CBD.
QIC Global Real Estate managing director Michael O’Brien said the campaign — run by Colliers International and JLL — received strong interest from local and offshore bidders.
“Our divestment of Q&A Centre represents the successful execution of QIC Global Real Estate’s investor-endorsed strategy for the QIC Property Fund,” he said.
The Shayher Group is part of the giant Taiwanese apartment developer Par Jar Group and was established in 2000 and is based in Brisbane.
It has a diversified portfolio of retail, commercial and residential investments and developments across Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
Shayher Group’s notable developments include the mixed use Brisbane Quarter on the former supreme court site and this year it bought the Bulimba Army Barracks site
The Q&A Centre has been held by QIC since 1994 and is in Australia’s most visited retail precinct with more than 26 million visitors each year.
The 3692sq m double corner site has a total of 31,708sq m net lettable area incorporating 7283sq m retail and 24,425sq m office spread across a three-level podium and two towers with basement parking for 207 bays.
The asset is currently 79 per cent leased and major tenants include the Commonwealth of Australia, National Australia Bank, Citibank, Dimension Data, Secure Parking, JB HiFi, Vodafone and Ramsay Health Care.
The deal was struck by Colliers’ Jason Lynch, Lachlan MacGillivray and Don Mackenzie and JLL’s Seb Turnbull, Jacob Swan and Luke Billiau.
Mr Lynch said the significance of the opportunity generated deep interest from both domestic and offshore capital.
“On a global basis, Australia, particularly Brisbane, is attractive on a comparative return basis,” Mr Lynch said.
Mr Swan said it was only the 10th transaction on the Queen Street Mall in the past decade.