Sentinel selling Citilink Brisbane

June 20, 2017

Matthew Cranston | The Australian Financial Review

Sentinel Property Group is selling its Citilink Business Centre in Brisbane’s Bowen Hills in a deal that could show an increase in value of more than 3 per cent in just three years.

Sentinel purchased the property in 2014 from Centuria Funds Management for $62 million. It was the Sentinel’s largest acquisition requiring a capital raising that saw new capital from investment bank Moelis’ new Significant Investment Visa property fund.

Sentinel’s Warren Ebert confirmed there was a sale process in place and the time to sell was right. “I think we bought in at the right time and this is the next stage in the process,” he said. “We haven’t spent a lot on it but we have had new leasing commitments with the state government.” Sentinel, which manages more than $1 billion in property, has been selling various properties out of its national portfolio. The group offloaded three neighbourhood shopping centres in regional NSW for a total of $44.5 million to wealth management and advisory firm Real Asset Management last week.

CBRE’s Mike Walsh and Peter Court have been appointed to sell the Bowen Hills property located at 153 Campbell Street. The property has campus style buildings with a total net lettable area of 15,669 square metres and 271 car parks. It could fetch more than $80 million. The property has a 3.1 year weighted average lease expiry mostly with the state government and instruments maker Siemens. The current net passing income is $6.44 million.

“We believe it is positioned ideally for today’s market – offering scale and income security with a majority of the property leased to government particularly Queensland Health,” Mr Ebert said. “The property is further enhanced by its position directly opposite Queensland’s largest hospital – the Royal Brisbane.”

At the time Mr Ebert purchased the property he said he appreciated the “difficulties in the Brisbane office market” but that he believed the property has something that others did not in terms of its positioning directly opposite what is the largest training hospital in the southern hemisphere.