THE Gold Coast home of pay television group Foxtel has changed hands with an investment joint venture striking a $33.1 million deal to tune in to one of the glitter strip’s largest office buildings.
Formerly known as the Austar building until the group’s merger with Foxtel last year, its sale is being touted as one of the strongest signals this year of improving confidence in the Coast’s hard hit property sector.
Brisbane-based property group Trident Corporation has teamed with venture capital group Alceon to purchase the six-level office complex adjacent to Robina Town Centre.
The syndicators finalised the deal this week with US investment giant BlackRock, which has been trying to offload the asset since 2008 as part of its exit from Australia.
Christian Sandstrom of Jones Lang LaSalle and Mark Witheriff of CBRE were the marketing agents for the building at 35 Robina Town Centre Drive.
Mr Sandtstrom said the transaction was a positive sign for a long-awaited recovery in the Coast’s ailing economy.
“It’s signalling a resurgence in interest in the Gold Coast property market,” he said. “And that is only going to improve, particularly as the 2018 Commonwealth Games get closer.”
Mr Sandstrom said on a rate per square metre basis, the deal struck at $3373/sq m on a 12.27 per cent yield represented “one of the largest transactions on the Coast in the past five years”.
Foxtel occupies the 9814sq m building under a lease expiring in October 2016 that returns a net rental income of $4.06 million. It also holds two five-year options.
Trident director Marcus Gaffney said the group had been “watching from a distance” as the asset was taken to the market via successive sales campaigns in recent years.
“For us, we’ve had experience on the Coast and we know it well and we can see that things are changing there,” he said.
“So we finally moved on the opportunity and had a crack . . . and we knew Alceon were also interested in investing in the Gold Coast.”
Mr Gaffney said Trident last year undertook an analysis of the city’s office market and “it was a lot better than what we thought”.
“We have seen increased leasing activity in the market and, with a functional positive council, business confidence is improving,” he said.
Mr Gaffney said the fundamentals of the Foxtel building “ticked boxes for us” including its blue chip tenant, location, large floor plates, ample natural light and car parking.
“That property has got probably the best amenity on the Coast,” he said. The town centre is pretty well unparalleled for what it provides and over and above that there’s the football stadium, health precinct and train station.
“So we’re excited about the future of Robina and believe it will be the ongoing focus for government support as far as tenants go when they start leasing space again.”
Mr Gaffney said Foxtel had indicated it wants to stay on the Coast but even if it did decide to move out the building’s 1600sq m floor plates were a rarity and would provide appeal in the local office market.
“There’s not actually a lot of big office buildings that provide a good opportunity for larger tenants on the Coast and this is probably, in our view, the best one,” he said.
The Foxtel building is among only a handful of big corporate hitters in the Gold Coast office market. The list also includes Fifty Cavill Avenue, the Corporate Centre buildings and the nearby 16-level office tower The Rocket.
Merrill Lynch Investment Managers bought the 6760sq m site from QIC Robina in 2000 at a cost of $1.27 million ahead of the building’s development the following year. In 2006, MLIM merged with BlackRock.
The building includes 157 undercover car parks and 111 podium-level car parks.
Original article published at www.news.com.au by Phil Bartsch The Courier Mail 15/5/2013