The Australian debt arm of Nuveen Real Estate has provided the bulk of debt for a Chinese-owned group, Yuhu, to purchase a A$380m (€238m) mixed-use project known as the Bakehouse Quarter in Sydney.

Industry sources told IPE Real Assets that Nuveen had provided a “stretched” senior loan in “the range of A$200m to A$250m”.

Nuveen declined a request for comment.

Since branching into lending for commercial projects in Australia in October 2017 following, Nuveen had secured a number of significant deals, competitors said.

They pointed to this loan to Yuhu Group as one of Nuveen’s biggest transactions.

The sources said the funding facility had enabled Yuhu to settle on a purchase that was first announced in 2017. Since then, Yuhu had reportedly paid deposits and fees of about A$58m as it extended options to buy the site.

The six-hectare asset, on a former biscuit factory and warehouse in Sydney’s inner western suburbs, has the capacity for a A$1bn mixed-use project.

Yuhu bought the site from Kirela Development Unit Trust, managed by Blackwall Property Trust.

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