Australian property investment manager Centennial Property has invested A$163m (€96m) as part of a Brookfield mandate aimed at investing in last-mile logistics.
The property manager purchased two adjoining industrial buildings in Brookvale, on Sydney’s northern beaches, from Centuria Capital for A$84m, and also bought a cold storage and distribution facility at Prestons in Sydney’s west from the Charter Hall’s Direct Industrial Fund 4 (DIF4) for $79m.
In May this year, Brookfield gave Centennial a A$700m mandate to invest in last-mile logistics, seeking out both new acquisitions and redevelopments of existing properties.
Paul Ford, executive director and CEO of industrial and logistics at Centennial, told IPE Real Assets: “Acquisition of these assets heavily aligns with our niche strategy that focusses on urban, inner-ring land-constrained markets where we can provide multiple ‘mid-space’ tenancies.”
Ford said the assets were being acquired at close to land value, with strong cashflow along with multiple “value-add” opportunities that comprised a combination of repositioning existing buildings back into or developing new generic mid-space industrial and logistics tenancies.
Centuria said it acquired the Brookvale assets in 2012 for A$40.5m.
Ross Lees, head of funds management at Centuria, said that with strong market tailwinds, the manager believed now was an opportune time for divestment.
Charter Hall Direct fund manager, Julian Menegazzo, said: “We continue to actively curate our portfolio of industrial and logistics facilities, divesting over A$135m across five older, non-core assets over the last 12 months.”
Menegazzo said proceeds from recent divestments would be utilised to recycle capital into more modern facilities, continuing to add to the overall quality of DIF4’s A3.5bn industrial and logistic property portfolio.
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