GROWTH POTENTIAL

A MODERN two- level office building in Townsville’s CBD has been snapped up by a local investor for $ 4.3 million.

The deal for 131 Denham St showed a strong passing yield of about 8.8 per cent, while vacancies in the centre provide the potential for significant upside.

The property was marketed by Paul Dury and Mark Fitzgerald of Knight Frank Townsville.

Mr Dury said they conducted a five- week expressions of interest campaign, attracting more than 50 inquiries and four offers.

He said the purchaser was a local entity, Auspire Investments, which saw an opportunity to purchase a partially leased asset and add value to the acquisition by obtaining a fully leased property with a potential net income of over $ 650,000.

“The owner is currently costing upgrades to the property which include, but are not limited to, end of trip facilities, disabled access, sig- nage upgrades, a review of the airconditioning plant and equipment and external building treatments,” Mr Dury said.

The deal is one of several in the CBD in recent times where there is a high level of interest, generally from owner- occupiers but also from investors.

The previous owner of 131 Denham was Equity Trustee Superannuation which had held two assets in the city. Apart from the Denham St property, it had held a retail building at 305 Flinders St which sold to the Cowboys Leagues Club in late 2015 for about $ 1.6 million.

The Denham St property has 2800sq m of floor space over two levels, a land area of 1952sq m and a basement carpark with parking for 60 vehicles and five storerooms.

The property is strata titled with the whole of the property under single ownership.

Tenants include Tropic Distributors, MacDonnells Law, Commonwealth of Australia and Channel 7.

Mr Dury said there were two va- cancies at ground level of 430sq m and 377sq m, which could be reconfigured to suit tenant needs, and a vacancy on level 1 of 187sq m.

“We currently have information packs available to new tenants which set out the condition of the tenancies upon handover and landlord incentives,” Mr Dury said.

“The tenancies will include separately metered commercial grade airconditioning and power, suspended tile ceilings, LED lighting to open plan areas, external glazing … ( and) smoke/ thermal detectors.”