Burwood office sold for possible redevelopment

DEXUS Property Group has sold its inner west Sydney office buildings at 36 George Street,  Burwood to family-owned Holdmark Property Group.

The A Grade building, which sold for $29 million – or 44 per cent – above DEXUS’ book value, attracted 12 bids from both offshore and local bidders.

DEXUS chief executive officer Darren Steinberg said the transaction was consistent with the company’s strategy to divest non-core assets.

“While there is future development opportunity at the site, we have made the decision to capitalise on strong current investor demand,” he says.

Holdmark, a privately-owned family development company, has purchased a number of development sites in Sydney’s west in recent years. In 2014, Holdmark snapped up nearby Burwood Plaza for $80 million from Centuria Property Funds.

The George Street property, which is leased to the NSW government, was sold with zoning for a mixed-use project.

Savills’ Simon Fenn, Ben Azar, Stuart Cox and Neil Cooke negotiated the sale, with Fenn saying the asset was attractive to “both local and international groups looking to secure quality assets with significant development potential around key transport nodes”.

The sale follows more than $930 million of property divestments completed or exchanged by DEXUS in the 2015 financial year.

DEXUS has exchanged conditional contracts for the sale of Acacia Gate Industrial Estate in Brisbane for $21.6 million, following recent sales of 2 Costello Place in Seven Hills for $14.9 million and Melbourne International Airfreight Centre for $23.9 million.

The Acacia Gate sale completes DEXUS’ recent industrial divestment strategy, which focused on disposing of smaller, non-core industrial assets at an attractive point in the market cycle.

DEXUS currently has $19.1 billion of assets under management.