A landmark office tower in Sydney has been sold to Singapore-based real estate firm, Ascendas-Singbridge, for $252-million.
Designed by PTW Architects, Civic Tower comprises approximately 22,929-square-metres of lettable space over 24 levels, along with retail tenancies and basement carparking spaces. The tower, which sits on the site of, 66 Goulburn Street rises above the neighbouring 1979-built Masonic Centre.
The building has been sold by property owner and fund manager, GDI Property Group, who acquired the property in July 2014 for $136-million. The recent sale was managed by global property consultancy, Knight Frank on behalf of GDI, in conjunction with commercial real-estate firm, CBRE.
Knight Frank's associate director of commercial sales in NSW, Jonathon Vaughan, says the tower is ideally placed to benefit from the expected tightening of the office vacancy rate.
“66 Goulburn Street provides excellent exposure to the best-performing office market in Australia and the new owners will benefit from very strong effective rental growth going forward, especially with the large amount of office withdrawals in the Midtown Precinct,” says Vaughan.
Additionally, Knight Frank's head of commercial sales in NSW, John Bowie Wilson, says that “over the last two years GDI has invested significant capital to reposition the asset, and it now provides a WALE [weighted average lease expiry] of just over [five] years, underpinned by government entities and legal and professional service firms.”
“This tenant base is reflective of its excellent location opposite the Local, Family and District Courts.”
Civic Tower’s drawcards include floor-to-ceiling windows and a 360-degree view across Hyde Park, Sydney Harbour, Central and Darling Harbour. Major tenants currently include Samuel Griffith Chambers, Government Property NSW, Prudential Investment Co, William Buck and the Copyright Agency.
