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Listed Australian real estate investor Valad Property Group is embarking on a large office park development on Carter Holt Harvey's head office site in Manukau.
Valad's executive chairman Stephen Day said from Sydney that the site at 640 Great South Rd in Auckland was big enough to take
a large high-tech office precinct which could be similar to projects in Sydney's North Ryde where Valad had developed.
Valad said last month it had bought A$277.3 million of property from Carter Holt, including the Manukau headquarters which is an 8.5ha site legendary for once having a nine-hole golf course for Carter Holt executives.
The Australian group bought 15 Carters building supplies sites, which are subject to nine-year sale and leaseback agreements with two six-year rights of renewal.
It also bought 10 packaging plants on similar terms. Five of those plants are in Australia.
Valad already has an investment in other parts of New Zealand. It has a stake in the Maritime Towers in Wellington, owns the West Plaza and surrounding development sites in Auckland and a large development project at Albany. Valad worked with Wellington investors Buckingham Asset Management to buy the Maritime Towers and on the West Plaza development project.
The Manukau property is the jewel in the collection of properties Valad bought last month from billionaire Graeme Hart, Carter Holt's owner.
It is also the biggest of five development sites Valad bought. However, the ASX-listed entity has sale and leaseback agreements on most of the properties.
Only the head office property was earmarked for development by Valad at this stage.
Mark Frinsdorf, Valad's head of capital transactions, said at the time of purchase that no decisions had been made on what to build on the site but a high-tech business park or a bulky goods/office precinct were possibilities.
Day said Valad would soon set up offices and was looking at both Auckland and Wellington but had not yet decided what to do. Last Thursday, Valad told the ASX it had made an annual net profit in the year to June of A$109.1 million.
It listed its New Zealand activities as holding a stake in the $200 million Albany Town Centre project and in the $75 million Maritime Tower, premium-grade offices in Wellington.
Just before the end of its June financial year, Valad announced it had bought Scarborough, a European property entity with A$10.2 billion in assets under management, 260 people in 16 offices in 11 countries including France, Britain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Valad also has a joint venture with Halifax Bank of Scotland which it said last week allowed it to further grow its funds management business.
VALAD GROUP
* Has A$18.3 billion assets under management
* About to open offices in New Zealand
* Has bought Carter Holt Harvey sites here
* Embarking on a large Manukau project