Eyeing industrial price record
Adiscreet international hunt has begun for a buyer willing to spend a Gold Coast record figure on an industrial property. The Gold Coast Logistics Hub at Arundel, on land on which for many years toothpaste and detergent were made by ColgatePalmolive, could bring north of $200m, according to industrial players.
That would see the developers who embarked on the project in 2020, and already have cashed in portions of it, clean up.
They are LOGOS, an industrial and logistics group, and Singaporean-based Partners Group, a private markets investment manager.
A $200m-plus figure previously has been achieved on the Gold Coast, but for retail assets and not industrial ones.
The biggest industrial sale in recent times has been the $67m paid for a Woolworths distribution centre at Yatala.
The sell-off of the Arundel hub, a juicy target for institutional buyers, is a plum listing for Colliers’ Gavin Bishop and CBRE’s Chris O’Brien – such chances don’t come along every day.
Sellers LOGOS and Partners each have global investments, many of them on a bigger scale than their Arundel property.
LOGOS, for example, has more than $30bn worth of projects either owned or under development in a portfolio that takes in Australasia, Asia and India.
The 22ha Arundel property was bought for $23.2m in 2017 and a year later the wraps were taken off plans for a logistics hub.
The partners’ first made-to-order property was a 1.25ha building for Toll Holdings, then owned by Japan Post but with its logistics arm in 2021 sold to private equity.
That arm today trades as Team Global Express and still has the Arundel base.
Since 2018 a series of major tenants have committed to bases at the logistics hub, including Australia Post, Village Roadshow and Amazon.
The upshot is that seven buildings owned by LOGOS and Partners, on 12.5ha and with a gross lettable area of nearly 6ha, are netting more than $10m a year, with market reviews offering upside to take the income above $11m.
The leases expire, on average, in more than six years.
Three of the buildings are termed “super-warehouses”.
LOGOS and Partners since 2018 have sold off a number of land parcels within the project to developers and owner-occupiers.
One of the buyers has been former surf ironman Lawrence Reece, who picked up 2.85ha and set about developing and selling 66 industrial units in a project he called Arundel Business Park.
Brothers Gavin and Nigel Nixon bought a 4900sq m lot for a 14-unit strata-title project.
Other buyers have included Andrew Clarke, head of Clarke’s Design and Construct, who bought 2500sq m.
The Colgate-Palmolive presence on the Arundel land lasted for more than three decades.
The group bought the site, with the bulk of it not cleared, in 1988 and set up oral-care and laundry manufacturing operations. The deal by LOGOS and Partners to buy that land came after interest not just from Australia but from offshore parties.
WELL-AGED INVESTMENT
Steve Rackemann, long-time Gold Coast surgeon, has every reason for a knees-up when he turns 70 this year.
It has emerged that he has sold two aged-care homes to companies in Sydney’s Catalyst group and collected $24m.
The founder of the Knee Centre at Benowa, who these days is not operating there, last year unloaded his Hillview Care property at Merrimac for $17.5m and Hillview House at Ashmore for $6.5m.
These days Steve gives his address as a home at Wategos Beach at Byron Bay, one he bought for nearly $4.5m 15 years ago.
BUYING INTO SECTOR
Brett Walker, a Brisbanite who started a major construction group more than 30 years ago, is the buyer who’s put a Tweed Heads aged-care village into his property portfolio.
The multi-floor Tweed Fairways village, which has been sitting empty, has been sold for $19.6m and its 70 one and two-bedroom units put up for rent.
The seller was industry player Aveo, these days owned by Canadian giant Brookfield.
The 57-year-old Brett and his BWC group are no strangers to the oldies’ business, having built a retirement home and a swag of other projects that go from a hotel to childcare centres and shops.
NORFOLK ISLAND LISTING
Teresa Skordou, a Burleigh-based commercial property agent, has listed a spot of luxury across the ocean – at Norfolk Island.
She’s been given the job of selling two new villas, each with a heated magnesium pool, that are being touted as offering the island’s premiere tourist accommodation.
The adjoining one-bedroom properties sit on more than 2ha on a hill and overlook the ocean.
Teresa has dipped a toe into the Norfolk waters previously, selling a small retail centre.