Austar's Gold Coast headquarters back on the market

The six-level Austar building in the Robina CBD on the Gold Coast has been listed for sale by owner BlackRock, following an unsuccessful attempt to sell the building in June 2008. 

The 6,760-square-metre site is located 35 Robina Town Centre Drive, with CBRE’s Gold Coast managing director Mark Witheriff appointed as the exclusive selling agent. 

Austar’s lease over the building extends to October 2016, with two options of five-year terms thereafter. 

It offers a net lettable area of 9, 814 square metres and incorporates 157 undercover car parks and 111 podium-level car parks. It is adjacent to the recently refurbished Robina Town Centre in the heart of the Robina CBD. 

It is the fourth-largest office building on the Gold Coast. 

In 2008, the Waterside West tower at Holden Place Bundall, west of Surfers Paradise, which has a net letable area of 7,170 square metres, sold for $33.5 million to a local investor. 

The Austar building is held through a property trust managed by BlackRock Investment Management (Australia), formerly Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) – a subsidiary of US fund management group BlackRock.

MLIM acquired the site from QIC Robina in 2000 for $1.27 million ahead of the building's construction in 2001. 

It will be sold by expression of interest on September 1 at noon. 

News of the sale comes as Foxtel’s proposed acquisition of Austar awaits ACCC approval. A decision on the takeover will be made on September 8. 

Witheriff says the strength of the building’s tenancy profile and the property’s central Robina location will be significant draw cards for prospective purchasers. 

“The Austar building represents one of a handful of institutional grade investment properties available on the Gold Coast,” he says. 

While the Gold Coast office sector as a whole has suffered through the GFC, Witheriff says the Robina CBD currently boasts the lowest vacancy rate on the Gold Coast of approximately 10%.” 

Tenants of redeveloped Robina Town Centre include Coles, Woolworths, Myer and David Jones, Apple and JB Hi-Fi. 

The Queensland government’s Department of Public Works (QBuild) is among state and federal government departments that have committed to new office leases over the past three years in Robina. 

Engineering company GHD and Gold Coast-based accountancy group WMS have also signed lease agreements recently.