No Bites For South Wharf Office Building in Docklands

Acquisitive developer and fund manager Charter Hall is rumoured to have shelved plans to buy a Docklands office building, currently under construction on the southern banks of the Yarra River, near the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre.

Well placed sources say the Sydney-based company was in due diligence to buy the 27,345 square metre A-grade building at the end of last year, for a purchase price of around $160 million.

The office building, branded South Wharf, is being offloaded by developer Austexx, which owns an adjoining site it is planning to turn into a 50,000 square metre bulky goods centre.

Construction of South Wharf started last year and is expected to be finished in late 2009, along with several other buildings in the CBD, Southbank and Docklands. Austexx will occupy one floor of the new building, relocating from St Kilda Road, while another floor has been leased to an undisclosed tenant.

Approximately 23,000 square metres of the office building, is still vacant.

Representatives from commercial agency CB Richard Ellis, which is marketing the property, and Charter Hall failed to return Capital Gain’s calls this week.

The sale conditions for South Wharf mirror that of Devine Limited, which recently sold a Bourke Street hotel it has yet to develop to the Singapore-based Ascott Group, for $136 million.

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