Charter Hall has partnered up with a super fund company to pay $458 million to a receiver for a Perth-based office building known as Bankwest Place.
The building – which was placed into receivership in 2011 and has since been handled by Westgem Investments – is home to the new Bankwest head office and a three level retail centre.
The complex occupies a total lettable area of 61,564 square metres and of that approximately 9,831 square metre is made up of retail space. The retail centre is anchored by a 15 year lease to Coles Supermarkets and linked to the William Street train station via an underground retail tunnel. The centre opened in 2012 and comprises 67 tenancies with a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of approximately six years.
With the centre still in its establishment phase, Charter Hall will utilise its relationships with national retailers to enhance its performance. The building also comprises two hotel complexes totalling 5,736 square metres which are leased for a further eight years and which offer future potential for expansion.
“Despite the slowdown in the resource sector, we are confident about the longer term outlook for Perth and are attracted to the security of a non-resource tenant of Bankwest’s calibre in this active precinct. We also believe we can add value to the non-office components of the complex, utilising our retail experience to extract greater value for our investors,” Joint Managing Director for Charter Hall, David Harrison, said.