Walker Corp Offloads Proposed Ann Street Tower

Property fund manager EG has acquired a site in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, just 1km north of its CBD, for $27.72 million on a tight 4.7 per cent net yield.

The 3,582sq m site has development approval for two separate schemes — one residential, one commercial — with Lang Walker’s Walker Corporation scrapping the apartment scheme after the market turned in 2017.

Walker Corporation acquired the whole-block island site in 2015 for $22.2 million.

The developer later won approval for a 26-storey A-grade office tower comprising 44,000sq m of net lettable area and ground floor retail. Cox Architecture designed the scheme.

The $400 million green star-rated office tower would eventually house up to 5,000 workers, Walker Corporation said.

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Located close to trendy James Street, EG’s latest asset joins a swathe of office development in the area including Consolidated Properties’ $250 million office scheme at 895 Ann Street and Pellegrino Group’s commercial building at 89 McLachlan Street.

The 801 Ann Street site is the eighth asset to join EG’s Yield Plus Infrastructure No. 2 fund, which has a $750 million real estate mandate.

EG has more than $2.4 billion worth of assets under management.

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In 2018, the Sydney-based fund manager picked up a 17-storey Brisbane office tower from Peter Harburg’s portfolio and offloaded Fortitude Valley’s Optus Centre site for $23.5 million.

The site, which had approval for a controversial apartment scheme, was acquired by Scott Hutchinson of Hutchinson Builders for the 3,300-person capacity Fortitude Valley Music Hall.

A spokesperson for EG Funds said that the site had been initially acquired as a yield producing asset. The Volvo showroom and car service centre lease expires in 2024.

The transaction was brokered off-market by JLL’s Seb Turnbull.