Centuria doubles money with Darwin office building sale

Centuria Property Funds has sold ‘Health House’ at 87 Mitchell Street in the Darwin CBD for $19.15 million.

Located within the core of Darwin’s CBD, the prime commercial office building was acquired by the Centuria Diversified Direct Fund in 2001 for $9.5 million.

This represents annual growth of around 6.2%, excluding the cost of significant refurbishments and other building management costs.

Centurial Propety Funds is the unlisted property management and property syndicate arm of ASX-listed Centuria.

“Vacancies of A Grade office space in Darwin’s CBD are among the lowest in Australia and we expect them to reduce further as Darwin’s economy is boosted with the injection of $4.4 billion from the private sector for large scale resource projects," says Jason Huljich, CEO of Centuria Property Funds.

“The sale of 87 Mitchell Street represents an opportunity for our buyer to capitalise on the significant resource-stimulated growth in Darwin. It also supports Centuria’s primary strategic focus, which is the acquisition of larger, higher grade assets in major metro cities throughout Australia.”

Constructed circa 1986, Health House is fully leased by the Northern Territory Government’s Department of Health, which recently exercised its two year option to extend its lease until December 2017.

The property comprises five levels of office accommodation with basement car parking for 41 vehicles, three partially undercover spaces and 12 on grade parks located at the rear of the property.

Since its acquisition, Centuria has made significant refurbishments to the building.

Between 2004 and 2006, the exterior façade underwent a complete architectural upgrade, in addition to the installation of air conditioning and the upgrading of the bathroom amenities. Other upgrades including the installation of low energy lighting in common areas helped lift its NABERS Energy rating from 4 to 4.5 stars.

The sale of the Health House was handled by Knight Frank agent Matthew Knight, together with KG Young & Associates PTY LTD agent Keven Young.