Property fund manager Centennial and MaxCap Group have started construction on their Link Industrial Park project at Willawong in Brisbane’s south estimated at $100 million on completion.
The speculative industrial project will comprise nine premium office and warehouses properties spread across three buildings, delivering around 32,000sqm of gross lettable area.
The move is a strong show of confidence for the ongoing strength, highly land constrained inner ring markets and future growth of south east Queensland’s booming industrial and logistics (I&L) sector, according to Centennial.
The Link Industrial Park will achieve a total site coverage of about 50% when completed in Q2 2024.
Centennial’s Executive Director and CEO – Industrial & Logistics, Paul Ford, said The Link Industrial Park presented an outstanding opportunity to partner with MaxCap to create an institutional grade, mid-space logistics estate in a highly land constrained precinct, from the ground up.
“The majority of larger institutions generally only target tenants requiring 10,000sq m and upwards, thereby starving smaller businesses from accessing quality A-grade industrial space for their employees,” Ford said.
“In a competitive jobs market where it’s hard to attract and retain employees, we expect The Link Industrial Park will be a major drawcard for tenants looking to provide high-quality work surroundings, together with a wide range of sustainability initiatives which support a five-star facility with carbon reducing initiatives that are more easily incorporated into new build project.”
Simon Hulett, MaxCap’s Head of Direct Investment said the company was delighted to be partnering with Centennial and commencing construction.
“The investment complements the other assets in our MaxCap Diversified Opportunity Fund through adding continued geographical and sector diversity, as well as bringing another highly sophisticated joint venture partner into the portfolio,” Hulett added.
“Commencing construction now highlights our confidence in the product and provides prospective tenants with certainty of delivery in a constrained market. Centennial is considered to be the inner-ring and last mile logistics specialist and has built up an impressive portfolio to now be Brisbane’s fourth largest manager of mid-space assets.
“Willawong’s central location and proximity to major transport and infrastructure networks also underscored our decision to partner with Centennial. With low vacancy and limited supply of this scale, the Link presents a compelling opportunity to deliver a differentiated product within an infill area experiencing sustained occupier demand.”
As part of Brisbane City Council’s development approval, Centennial and MaxCap will also undertake significant revegetation of high value ecological space along Oxley Creek, which comprises almost 17,000sqm that will be dedicated to Council on completion.
Jack Barratt and Paul Flego of Agency HQ and Jack Hardy and Peter Turnbull of CBRE have been appointed leasing agents of The Link Industrial Park, with both agencies reporting positive feedback for the site’s location and strong early interest from a broad mix of occupiers before construction had even commenced.
Agency HQ’s Jack Barratt said it was relatively rare to find such a significant parcel of land in this location, and with record low vacancy in the core central south precinct around Acacia Ridge and Coopers Plains, there was currently significant interest in new buildings in Willawong.
“Not only does Willawong offer these businesses a location that is close to their current sites, thereby improving efficiency and continuity, it also provides a handy solution in addressing staff retention,” Barratt said.
