Shayher Picks Up QIC’s Landmark Q&A Centre for $395m

Taiwanese-backed developer Shayher has exchanged contracts with QIC for its flagship Q&A Centre in Brisbane’s CBD, less than a month after it emerged as the buyer of the 20-hectare Bulimba Barracks site.

The deep-pocketed developer forked out $395 million for the twin-tower asset, which comprises the 24-storey 141 Queen Street and 10-storey 140 Elizabeth Street.

The two towers make up the last straight office asset in QIC’s flagship property fund after its $1.48 billion divestment of the 80 Collins Street precinct.

Shayher, which has ties to Taiwan’s Par Jar Group, is developing the triple-tower Brisbane Quarter on the former Law Courts site in George Street and is also undertaking the $1 billion redevelopment of Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison.

The group also recently secured two campus-style buildings in Sydney’s inner west and is rumoured to have paid around $90 million for the historic Bulimba Barracks site.

The prize Q&A asset, which occupies a 3,692sq m site on Australia’s busiest mall, drew interest from Charter Hall and Brisbane’s Marquette and its US funds manager partner Hines, before Shayher entered due diligence in September.

In listing the asset, QIC said that the divestment of the Q&A Centre was part of its strategy for the QIC Property Fund. The group also sold out of the Sydney’s MLC Centre in 2017.

QIC Global Real Estate managing director Michael O’Brien said that the divestment of the asset was in line with fund’s investor-endorsed strategy.

“This transaction follows the sale of Noosa Civic Shopping Centre last month, as well as the highly successful sale of 80 Collins Street in Melbourne and MLC Centre in Sydney in 2017, with Q&A Centre the last predominately office asset remaining in the fund,” O’Brien said.

The asset is 79 per cent leased with a 2.7 year weighted average lease expiry by income.

The expressions of interest campaign run by JLL’s Seb Turnbull, Jacob Swan and Luke Billiau and Colliers’ Lachlan MacGillivray, Don McKenzie and Jason Lynch, closed in mid-September.

The sale of the Q&A Centre comes shortly after 130 Queen Street—across the busy Queen Street and Albert Street intersection—changed hands in September for $77 million.

In other recent Brisbane CBD transactions, Dexus has reportedly snapped up the Hermes-tenanted 171 Edward Street from Aria Property Group in a $80 million-plus deal, while Malaysian investor HCK sold a B-grade building at 116 Adelaide Street for $30 million to a local group.

The Shayher Group declined to comment on the deal.

—Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include QIC’s comments on the sale of the Q&A Centre.