Former Canberra Times office at 9 Pirie St, Fyshwick to be redeveloped after $19.8 million sale

Sydney-based developers Norman Property Partners and Trumen purchased 9 Pirie St, Fyshwick earlier this year from ACM, the owner of this masthead, in an off-market sale.

The sale price of $19.8 million has now been disclosed.

The new owners will retain and refurbish the iconic corner office block and the building that once housed The Canberra Times' printing press.

It will be the first Canberra development for the joint venture, which specialises in industrial and self storage developments in Sydney and Melbourne.

Trumen founder and CEO Sam Allen said he and Sam Brewer of Norman Property Partners had been eyeing the Canberra market for some time.

"We felt as though the self storage facilities in Canberra have been performing very well and it's just a really good, solid market," Mr Allen said.

"We were looking at some different sites. We definitely pinpointed Fyshwick as the preferred location for self storage and so we managed to purchase the site off-market."

But the two-hectare site was too large for the storage business, Mr Allen said, so a portion was listed for sale.

A 11,432-square-metre slice of the block, or about 55 per cent of the site, went up for sale in August with price expectations of more than $11 million.

The portion, known as block B, has sold for $9,235,000, following a sale campaign run by Barton Property and Canberra Commercial.

The sale is conditional on the subdivision approval.

Barton Property principal Brett Barton, who also handled the initial off-market sale, said interest in the back half of the block was broad.

"There was a lot of interstate [interest] but it ended up being a local buyer," he said.

Mr Barton said the new buyer intends to occupy the space and may look to redevelop the site after five years.

It has been a strong year for industrial real estate transactions, Mr Barton said.

"I've noticed a bit of a downturn over the last six to eight weeks in the commercial market, but the industrial market seems to not be affected like the other markets," he said.

"There's [a shortage of] land in the industrial market in the ACT and Queanbeyan, which at the end of the day is keeping the industrial market very strong."

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Subject to approval, the new owners aim to begin construction of the storage facility towards the end of 2023.

In late 2021, Canberra Times staff relocated to a new office in Civic after more than three decades in the iconic Pirie Street site.

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