Primewest up in office rankings

Local developer and syndicator Primewest joined the list of Western Australia’s top three office landlords following its $113 million purchase of a 50 per cent stake in Exchange Tower.

Primewest was previously ranked fifth on the BNiQ Commercial Owners list and moved up after it settled the Exchange Tower acquisition – for a half-share in the property’s 135-year leasehold – in June.

Primewest and co-owner AMP Capital are working on a progressive refurbishment of the tower, including an $8 million revamp of the ground floor plaza.

The works have already attracted three new tenants – Arup, Moore Stephens and Fujitsu – which each took up leases of more than 1,000 square metres on redeveloped floors.

The acquisition also made Primewest the largest Perth-based commercial office owner, a position previously held by the Insurance Commission of Western Australia.

Brookfield Asset Management remained unchanged on top of the list, while DEXUS Property Group solidified its second-spot by adding 18,000sqm of office space to its portfolio through its purchase of Carillon Arcade and its office tower for $140 million.

However, the largest-value office transaction in 2016 was the sale of Forrest Centre to Perth Upper China Hotel, which makes its debut on the BNiQ Commercial Owners list in 16th place.

Perth Upper China Hotel paid ICWA $220 million for Forrest Centre, making it the city’s highest-value transaction since 2013, when Raine Square was sold to Charter Hall for $458 million and Mirvac Group bought Allendale Square for $231 million.

Perth Upper China Hotel made its first WA acquisition in late 2014 – an apartment development site on Adelaide Terrace, which it is bringing to market in a joint venture with Finbar Group.

Marketing is well under way for a $152 million, 33-level apartment tower, known as Vue.

ICWA’s sell off resulted in it falling from third place on the BNiQ Commercial Owners ranking, all the way to 15th, leaving just two Perth-based companies in the top 10.

And ICWA remains a possibility to drop off the list completely, if it finds a suitor to buy the 32,732sqm Westralia Square.

The ICWA sell-down also introduced another new Chinese group to the list – Zone Q Investments.

Zone Q, which is the Australian arm of giant Chinese development vehicle JiaHe JianAn Group, bought Westralia Plaza from ICWA for $87 million.

It also began its Perth journey in apartments, with its Pinnacle in South Perth to be the first of the suburb’s new wave of apartment projects to be completed.

Zone Q is also advancing plans for two other apartment sites in South Perth, while marketing continues at its Beaufort Street NSpire 108 tower.