Weekly Transaction Update – 3rd March

3 March 2017

For Week ending 3rd March 2017 Another very quiet week for the transaction market. One unusual transaction this week was the sale of a substation site in South Melbourne which Citipower have leased since 1965. According to The Age, Michael Donovan, principal of Fitzroys Real Estate, acquired the site in 1992 for $525,000. He sold the site this week to Citipower for $23.0M ! The land surrounding the substation increased in value substantially following the Victorian Government rezoning of Fishermans Bend for high density development. It would seem that the lease to Citipower was due for renewal last year and the market rent was reported to have increased from $198,000 pa to $1.1M. Donovan decided to sell the site and Citipower, who faced with a substantial increase in rent or relocation costs, stepped in to outbid other developers in order to acquire the site. Donovan took a nice +20% per annum return on his investment. Well done ! The major transaction for the week was Logos Property’s acquisition of the Woolworths Distribution Centre in Minchinbury, Sydney. In an interesting arrangement, Woolworths own the freehold title to the land but sold a 55 year leasehold interest and a 5 year sub-lease to Lend Lease’s Prime Property Fund in 2006, as part of an $223 million sale and leaseback of 3 centres. Lend Lease has now sold the leasehold interest for $160 million. The site consists of a 88,555sqm facility on a 21.4 ha site and is integral to Woolworths’ national supply chain network, servicing 180 supermarkets across Sydney. Scroll through the list below or head to the Australian Property Transaction Data Map for further details. This Weeks deals