Centuria Offloads Parramatta Tower for $105.3m

Capitalising on Parramatta’s robust investor demand, Centuria has sold an A-grade office tower in the river city for $105.3 million.

Centuria Property Funds Limited, a subsidiary of Centuria Capital Group sold the tower, at 2-10 Wentworth Street, after purchasing it for $45.1 million in December 2014.

The active group recently divested The Zenith in Chatswood for $438 million, and completed the sale of a half share in 8 Central Avenue at Sydney’s Australian Technology Park for $191 million, with both properties held in Centuria single asset unlisted funds.

Sydney’s second CBD has seen a wave of assets change hands. Last week, Charter Hall’s Direct PFA Fund offloaded its seven-storey Parramatta building for $64.25 million.

The building, located down the road at 9 Wentworth Street, was snapped up by a private investor.

While Charter Hall struck a deal with Singapore wealth fund GIC to buy the Jessie Street Centre for more than $400 million in Parramatta’s CBD last month.

The latest Centuria sale, slated for settlement in early 2020, was the sole asset in a closed-end unlisted property fund.

“Our view was that the Parramatta office market was poised to benefit from a number of positive factors,” Centuria joint chief executive Jason Huljich said of the tower’s purchase.

“At the same time, A-grade office vacancy was below 1 per cent, which we believed could support stronger tenant appetite for quality office properties, and in turn would mean upward pressure on rents – which the Parramatta market has seen in recent years,” he said.

Huljich added that Centuria plans to grow its unlisted division. In line with these plans. The property fund manager, on Monday, purchased a commercial building in the Melbourne suburb of Mulgrave, at 13-15 Compark Circuit, for $27.8 million.

Earlier this year, the group purchased an A-grade office tower for $65.4 million in Bowen Hills on Brisbane’s CBD fringe.

It also secured a six-level office building at 10 Moore Street in Canberra for $35 million and a new-build office property for $19.7 million in Brisbane’s Technology Park Northshore office precinct in Hamilton.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Steve Kearney, Simon Fenn, Mark Hansen and Claire Zouroudis, along with CI Australia’s Bevan Kenny and Andrew Hunter brokered the Parramatta deal.