Silverstone has bought the heritage-listed Corbett Chambers building in Brisbane’s CBD from Professor John Corbett and Lorraine Corbett.
The 283 Elizabeth Street building was originally designed by prominent Brisbane architect Claude William Chambers and completed in 1907.
The building sat on a 551 sqm site and featured 2,121 sqm of commercial net lettable area, including 1,712 sqm of office space and 409sqm of basement retail space.
The property had a weighted average lease expiry of 2.79 years and had major tenants including Corbett & Claude, JGL Properties, investment manager Alvia Asset Partners and commercial fit-out contractor Valmont.
The building was originally designed for the Commercial Travellers Association (CTA), which sold the building to the Commonwealth in 1963.
It was home to the Postmaster General’s marketing and commercial section until 1975, then Telecom until 1991.
In 2009, the Corbett Family bought the asset and embarked on a major works program that included its renaming to Corbett Chambers, honouring both the vendor family and architect Claude Chambers.
“The modernisation we have undertaken is truly state of the art, although the character of the building is as present as ever,” said Lorraine Corbett.
“Our goal was always to respect, enhance and maintain the heritage features and appeal of this magnificent building.”
Silverstone Managing Director Troy Daffy said the property was in an amazing location and would benefit from all the works that are about to occur in Eagle Street.
“Silverstone now has six heritage listed assets and we are immensely passionate about retaining these beautiful buildings,” Daffy said.
“Our strategy will be to fully lease the building and own it long term.”
Knight Frank agents Blake Goddard, Matt Barker and Justin Bond negotiated the sale on behalf of the vendors.
“It is such a beautifully presented heritage building, it was always going to appeal to high-net-worth investors looking for a trophy asset,” Goddard said.
“Although it was our view the likely purchaser was going to be a private, we did have interest from syndicate groups and smaller funds who appreciated the prime position of the asset along with strong occupancy history.”
Knight Frank’s Barker said the new owners were confident that under the right leasing conditions, the remaining vacancies could be filled reasonably quickly.
“Although it was sold with some vacancy, the building appeals to the most active leasing market being sub 500 sqm,” Barker said.
Recent Brisbane deals include RF Corval’s sale of an A-grade office at 365 Macarthur Avenue property in Hamilton to a Sydney-based private investor for $46.5 million earlier this month, representing a 5.3% capitalisation rate.
In May, Cromwell Property Group sold its head office building in Brisbane’s CBD to investment house Wingate for $108.5 million, while Southern Cross Group purchased the recently-built office building in Eight Mile Plains from Alceon for $19.735 million.
Alex Gow Funerals also sold its headquarters in Newstead to a Brisbane-based group for $14.3 million, with plans to redevelop the site for office use in the future.
In February, Canadian pension investment manager PSP Investments and Charter Hall Group acquired an office development under construction in Fortitude Valley, while Marquette Properties bought the Blue Tower office building in Brisbane’s CBD from Dexus in a $420 million deal.
