CBD office building, Australia Place at 15-17 William Street, is to be placed on the market next year.
CBD office building, Australia Place at 15-17 William Street, is to be placed on the market next year.
In recent years, the current owner has made several attempts to sell the 1980s office tower but to date the building has failed to move.
Current owners, Sword Properties – a subsidiary of Singapore company, The Straits Trading Co Ltd, which also owns the Rendezvous Observation City Hotel – purchased the A-grade 14-level building in 1996 for just more than $30 million.
After one attempt to sell the building in 1998, Australia Place was back on the market in October 2001.
With an asking price of $36.5 million it failed to attract any offers and was withdrawn in November 2002.
This week, after approaching all the major CBD commercial agents to submit marketing proposals, Jones Lang Lasalle was appointed exclusive sales agents.
Jones Lang Lasalle associate director John Williams said the reason the property failed to move in past sales attempts was because there was no real force behind the owner’s desire to sell.
Mr Williams said that the owners now believed it was the right time to sell and that Australia Place would be well sought after in the current market.
He said that the property was one of the few CBD office buildings in the $30 million to $50 million price range, which would make it attractive to investors.
In other property news, major resource engineering firm Worley will retain its tenancy in QV1 in one of this year’s largest leasing deals.
The announcement puts to bed industry speculation that Worley would pre-commit to a new CBD office development, such as Multiplex’s Westralia Square redevelopment.
Worley, which has been in the QV1 tower for the past eight years, has agreed to a 10-year lease commencing in January 2006 for levels three to seven.
The lease is for more than 8,000 square metres, almost 14 per cent of the office tower component of QV1.
Worley general manager-finance David Richardson said the company had undertaken an extensive evaluation of a wide range of relocation options.
Despite short-listing a number of attractive proposals, Mr Richardson said the QV1 leasing proposal provided the best overall value for money for the organisation and employees.
