Brisbane office tower, 288 Edward Street, was purchased by a new joint venture led by Heitman and Marquette and sale process managed by JLL’s Capital Markets team, according to JLL‘s report.
LL’s Senior Director of Capital Markets – Queensland, Luke Billiau, said that the campaign attracted strong depth of capital with both domestic and offshore interested in the value-add opportunity. “288 Edward Street is truly a unique offering that has the ability to leverage a recovering market and a central location” he said.
Marquette’s Managing Director Toby Lewis said, “Marquette is focused on value-add retail and office assets in Brisbane and has built a strong track record of repositioning assets in the CBD and near city markets. This asset suits our skill set and we have exciting plans to transform the asset from what it is today to be an asset that tenants and buyers will value highly.”
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“Our venture has 4 offshore investors led by Heitman as the cornerstone with groups from Hong Kong and the USA alongside EGW from Japan also investing in the deal. They all believe in the Queensland economy’s direction, the growth of Brisbane and its continued improvement in the standings of Asia-Pacific cities to invest and particularly the location of this asset. Being so central in the CBD relieves leasing stress and afford us options to improve the retail podium and the public realm dramatically.”
Skip Schwartz, Managing Director of Heitman’s Asia Pacific Private Real Estate Equity Group said “We identified strong potential for repositioning in 288 Edward to fully realise the value of its location in the core of Brisbane’s CBD. We look forward to working with Marquette in significantly enhancing both the retail and office offering to create a reinvigorated prime CBD building.”
Reid Mackay, Managing Director of EGW Asset Management said that “288 is a great example of finding real value in a core city location, and we believe in working with asset managers who specialize and focus their expertise in one single city location.”
