Fund manager Castlerock has added a significant another Queensland asset to its portfolio, acquiring the Verde Townsville tower for $92.8 million in what is the region's largest commercial office sale.

The landmark transaction for 445 Flinders Street follows the company's purchase of Verde Central, Mackay for $52,400,000 in December 2018.

Both sales were negotiated by Colliers Townsville Associate Director Neville Smith, who told WILLIAMS MEDIA the latest result was the culmination of 18 months of negotiations that transpired from the Mackay sale. 

At a glance: 

• The Verde office tower in Townsville has been sold to a fund managed by Castlerock for $92.8 million at Initial Yield of approximately 7.75 per cent and a Capital Value of $7,910/m2 lettable area. 
• The major tenant is the State of Queensland (87.7 per cent), and the building has a WALE (by income) of 7.8 years.
• The deal was negotiated by Colliers Townsville Associate Director Neville Smith.

"This definitely helps to cement Townsville as what it should be, which is the capital of North Queensland," he said.

"Castlerock believe in the area and had no issue in coming to the table.

“It is a huge vote of confidence for the region and in particular Townsville for a major fund management company such as Castlerock to invest in such significant assets," he said.

“It is not often you see assets of this magnitude transact in regional areas as they are of a size that you would typically relate to the capital cities."

Verde Townsville. Source: Colliers Townsville

Developed in 2013, Verde Tower is a 12-Storey office building comprising of 11,615 square metres Nett Lettable Area over eight storeys with 195 parking bays spread over ground and 3 podium levels.

The building was designed to service numerous Queensland Government departments as a strategic location for the Advance North Queensland policy, as well as accommodating the essential North Queensland Disaster Recovery Centre. 

The sale included a 1,523 square metre parcel of land at the rear known as 232-242 Sturt Street which has been utilised for at grade car parking operations. 

Verde Mackay. Source: Colliers Townsville

Colliers Townsville’s Managing Director Peter Wheeler said the sale served as a reminder that there is a brighter future for Townsville waiting on the other side of the current situation.

“This really is a fantastic outcome for the Townsville commercial property market and economy as a whole at a time when it is pretty hard to find good economic news right now," he said.

“There is no doubt that prior to the current situation we find our self in, that Townsville had turned a corner and was on the way up”. 

“We were experiencing the highest level of commercial property interest we had seen in years and boasting an impressive pipeline of major projects that was fueling this interest."

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