Frasers Property pays $40 million for industrial site in Melbourne’s north

Melbourne Wholesale Fruit, Vegetable & Flower Market in Epping.

Frasers Property  is paying approximately $40 million for a high-profile industrial site in Melbourne’s north.

The Epping property at 410 Cooper Street, stretches north to O’Herns Road and also has frontage to the Hume Freeway.

One diamond interchange is at the southern end of the 63.4 hectare block. Another is set to be developed towards its north.

Frasers Property’s general manager southern region, Anthony Maugeri, described the land, which it purchased from a private landowner, as strategic.

“The Epping acquisition…will further strengthen our position as one of the leading providers of prime industrial product in Melbourne. It also compliments Frasers Property’s other well-located industrial land holdings in Melbourne’s south-east and west.

“Master planning has started and we expect to bring the first stage of the estate to the market by the middle of 2019”.

The site is expected to make way for up to 250,000 square metres of industrial space worth upon completion about $250 million.

Frasers Property said the estate would feature pre-lease development, land and build packages as well as selective land sales.

The deal was brokered by Cushman & Wakefield’s Michael Green who said the proposed estate will predominantly satisfy the pre-lease market, where there is both strong demand and tight supply.

“Construction, distribution and food users are predominant occupiers of industrial space in Melbourne’s north,” Mr Green said. “As the population of Melbourne continues to grow, demand for food production, storage and distribution, housing manufacturing and eight-hour distribution to Sydney, will drive strong demand growth from occupiers in the area”.

According to the agency, Melbourne’s northern industrial market contains about 2.2 million of gross floor area. Just 40,000 sqm of that space is empty, contributing to a vacancy rate of less than two per cent, it added.

“Land values have also been rising in the area, with increases of between 30 to 40 per cent recorded in the past 12 months,” Mr Green said.

Melbourne’s Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market (pictured above, left) is in the immediate vicinity of 410 Cooper Street, as are properties occupied by Manfreight, Mission Foods, Chemist Warehouse, Visy, Coles, Bluestar Logistics, Linfox and Toll, the agency said.

In September we reported that Frasers Property sold an industrial investment at 23 Scanlon Drive, Epping, for $15.7 million – substantially more than the $11.7 million book value.

Last month Frasers Property secured Pinnacle Hardware as a tenant for a 12,300 sqm industrial facility in Brisbane. Pinnacle also leases space in Frasers The Key Industrial Park in Melbourne’s Keysborough.

In May we reported that Frasers Property was paying Vaughan Constructions $37 million for an industrial investment under construction in Truganina, in Melbourne’s west.

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Marc Pallisco

A former property analyst and print journalist, Marc is the publisher of realestatesource.com.au.