LOGOS calls in partners for $1.67b Moorebank deal
Six months after striking a $1.67 billion deal with Qube for the Moorebank Logistics Park (MLP), LOGOS has called in four partners.
Australian Super, it is understood, will invest the greatest amount – $774m.
The NSW Treasury Corporation’s TCorp, AXA IM Alts and Ivanhoé Cambridge – are the other backers.
The acquisition includes the 243 hectare business park, the investment-holding Qube Moorebank Warehouse Trust and about a third of the Lands Trust, which controls leaseholds.
The property abuts two intermodal terminals – connected to the interstate freight line and ports.
About 133,000 square metres of product has been committed, including two automated distribution centres under construction for Woolworths covering 26ha.
ATS, Caesarstone, PCA Express and Target have also rented facilities there.
Upon completion c850,000 sqm of product – with an end-value circling $4.2b – is anticipated.
The partnership agreement represents Australian Super’s biggest direct real estate outlay.
Last month, ESR, backed by GIC, settled on a $3.8b deal with Blackstone for a management business and 45 properties – making it the country’s third biggest industrial property owner.
Technology, sustainability
According to a Knight Frank research paper, importers with MLP warehouses will be able to receive containers on the same day they arrive at Port Botany.
“Latest technology automated gantries will unload the containers from the train and electric driverless straddle carriers which will deliver the container straight to the tenant’s warehouse door,” the agency’s head of Industrial, Matthew Lee, added.
“This automated straddle will take the empty container straight to a storage area on site until it is required, at which point it will then be railed back to the port having never once travelled on a truck,” the executive said.
“MLP will include a solar panel network across c850,000 sqm of rooftop,” according to the executive; some 60 megawatts of power is expected to be generated (story continues below).
“The combination of scale, location and efficiency is a unique opportunity for occupiers to embrace,” he added.
Moorebank Logistics Park
At the moment, the Moorebank business park is set to be Australia’s largest intermodal logistics facility (Qube has identified a 1100ha site in Melbourne’s north Beveridge where another investment of this nature is at the concept stage).
“The acquisition of MLP is a landmark investment by a consortium comprised of leading investors (the “LOGOS Consortium”) with a deep commitment to furthering the logistics, e-commerce and distribution landscape in Australia,” a LOGOS statement said.
“In addition to its investment alongside the consortium, LOGOS is appointed as the investment and development manager for MLP,” it added.
“By acquiring MLP, the LOGOS Consortium will establish a new benchmark for logistics development in the Asia-Pacific and contribute to ongoing further innovation in the sector globally,” according to the landlord.
“Our collective vision for MLP represents a fundamental shift in east coast logistics, as a fully automated port-to-site rail link.
“The high level of automation across the intermodals and warehousing will drive significant long-term cost advantages and improve supply chain predictability which will offer important labour efficiency and stock availability.
“The scale of a logistics site with this range of benefits, within a 30 minute drive of a major global CBD, has not been seen in Australia before”.
LOGOS head of Australia and New Zealand Darren Searle said consumer behaviour and expectations have driven supply chain changes since COVID.
“This has forced distributors and retailers to look for longer-term solutions to meet customer demand in food, cold storage, pharmaceutical, freight and distribution as a whole,” he added.
“Connectivity, efficiency and intermodal capacity are critical components of a pre-eminent logistics site, and no site is better equipped to facilitate market-leading levels of scale and automation than the Moorebank precinct,” according to the executive.
“The demand from global and domestic customers for high-quality, larger, automated distribution warehouses and fulfilment centres has continued to grow, and the LOGOS Consortium is delighted to be advancing NSW’s pre-eminent position in the national logistics network through the acquisition of MLP”.
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