Sentinel Buys into Strong Townsville Market

Sentinel Property Group has secured an office complex in the Townsville CBD with the $15.5 million purchase of “Central Plaza”, an eight-level commercial building near a range of services and amenities.

The property is located at 370 Flinders Street, Townsville, and is the ninth addition to the Sentinel Regional Office Trust over the last 18 months.

The Central Plaza purchase by Sentinel follows the $28.6 million acquisition in December, 2017, of River Quays – a Townsville CBD office building with major national and international tenants.

“Central Plaza is leased to high quality tenants including Hutchinson Builders, Queensland Government (Public Trustee) and QBE Insurance and the property has a weighted average lease expiry by income of 4.19 years,” Sentinel managing director Warren Ebert said.

Related reading: Sentinel Disposes of Banyo Facility for $37 Million

The asset was acquired on a passing yield of 9.38 per cent.

“National sales of CBD commercial buildings have recently reflected yields of sub 6.0 per cent,” Ebert said.

Central Plaza is ideally located in Townsville’s Flinders St Retail Precinct and close to the $250 million North Queensland Stadium Project, which will provide a new 25,000 seat home ground for the North Queensland Cowboys NRL club.

“The Department of State Development has brought forward the delivery of the stadium project which is expected to generate up to 750 jobs throughout the design and construction stages,” Ebert said.

“The stadium project, which is due to be built in time for the 2020 NRL season, will provide a catalyst for urban regeneration in Townsville, attract further investment into the region and support jobs growth.”

Ebert said Townsville is at the epicentre of more than $22 billion worth of projects within the infrastructure, sporting, mining, defence, health and manufacturing sectors.

Related reading: Sentinel Lists Three Major Retail Assets in Melbourne and Sydney

Sentinel early this year completed the sale of three large format retailers for a combined total of $89.05 million. The assets were located at Ipswich in South East Queensland, Dandenong in Melbourne and Nowra in southern NSW.

Sentinel has also fully leased its large format retail complex, The Centre at Springwood in Brisbane's south, after Lifeline agreed to a 345sq m retail lease at the 1-15 Lexington Road, Underwood property.

The centre, which comprises of three separate buildings with a total lettable area of 10,289 square metres, also includes tenants such as Stratco, 99 Bikes and the RSPCA.