A Canberra investment company has bought a $25 million property in Melbourne in a deal described as "the first significant purchase out of Canberra by a local investor group since the days of the Capital Property Trust''.
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The Canberra-based Argus Property Investments is run by four parties who represent 50 local "sophisticated investors'' who can only buy in with contributions of at least $500,000.
The four people behind the company are all based in Canberra - Richard Swinbourne from Capital Valuers, St George Bank executive and property owner Rob Terzi, Ottmar Weiss from Macquarie Bank and former Colliers International director Jim Shonk.
A spokesman for the company said it was now managing $150 million worth of property for its Canberra clients.
Included in the portfolio is the Belconnen Bunnings, the Barton College leased to the Commonwealth, and the former Home Hardware property in Gungahlin, which was about to undergo redevelopment. Six commercial tenancies are being built there, with one lessee, Dan Murphy's already signed up.
The Melbourne purchase was a new $25 million container handling hub in the inner-industrial suburb of Brooklyn, just 8km from the Port of Melbourne. Oceania Container Services, an Australian fully-owned subsidiary of Chinese shipping behemoth COSCO, has leased the 70,000 square metre site on a 15-year lease with options to extend.
A spokesman for Argus said they believed it was the biggest purchase by a Canberra investment group outside the national capital since the days of the old Capital Property Trust managed by the Snow family until 1994. One of that trust's big purchases back then was the Optus Centre in North Sydney in 1991.
A spokesman for Argus said the company "started as a vehicle to invest our own capital and spread to friends by word of mouth''.
"We manage for 100 per cent Canberrans wanting solid returns and capital appreciation, with a very low-risk exposure and monthly distributions,'' he said.
The Melbourne property in Jones Road was purchased on an initial yield equivalent to 6.5 per cent.
'"Argus were attracted to the investment by a diminishing stock of industrial land in the area, as traditional industrial users relocate from the immediate port area, driven by planning changes permitting multi-storey residential redevelopment and soaring land values,'' the spokesman said.
"The impact of these changes in the first ring of industrial suburbs from the port has led, and will continue, to drive significant increases in market value, with big blocks like this becoming ever more scarce and expensive.''
The spokesman said it had been difficult to find properties that met its needs.
"We're always looking,'' he said.
