Commonwealth of Australia investment sale in Melbourne

The Burwood East home of the National Archives of Australia (NNA) has been sold to a Sydney-based syndicator for close to $32 million following a public Expressions of Interest campaign.

The historically significant, 31 Vision Drive property has been home to the Commonwealth Government for 30 years and is situated in the Tally-Ho Business Park precinct.

It was marketed for sale on behalf of Melbourne family office Dorman Capital through CBRE’s Scott Orchard and Will Heffernan, together with Gorman Commercial’s Peter Bremner and Jonathan McCormack.

Mr Orchard said the sale price reflected a sub 7.5% yield.

“The healthy participation in the sale process and higher than normal ratio of inspections to bids is testament to the demand for long leases to the highest quality tenants, as well as the current interest in alternative style assets or those offering high-quality improvement opportunities,” Mr Orchard noted.

Dorman Managing Director Nicholas Dorman said a recent five-year lease renewal to the Commonwealth Government had been a catalyst for the group to redirect capital into its development pipeline.

The purpose-built Vision Drive property has a lettable area of 6,432sqm and occupies a Commercial 1 zoned site of approximately 11,860sqm.

The sale follows the recent CBRE transaction of another long WALE office building at 107 Overton Road, Williams Landing to Perth-based fund manager Ascot Capital for just over $25,000,000. That sale reflected a sub 6.5% yield for a near new property with a more than 10-year lease to the Victorian Government.