Lloyd Williams strikes hot $120 million deal for Flinders Street car park
BRW Rich Lister Lloyd Williams has sold a property that includes one of Melbourne CBD's biggest car parks for the expected $120 million when he listed it.
The buyer was a Hong Kong investor who has been building up his portfolio in Australia.
He had listed the 16-level property at 114 Flinders Street, which includes retail, 1200 car bays and office spaces earlier this year.
It sold on a tight yield of about 5 per cent, reflecting the sharp yields typical of the long-term returns delivered by off-street parking, the Australian Financial Review reported.
Williams bought the property in $54.5 million in 2007.
That price reflects the depth of demand in the market, which is pushing commercial property prices toward a peak.
The selling agents were CBRE’s Mark Wizel, Kiran Pillai and Lewis Tong, and Knight Frank's Martin O'Sullivan and Paul Henley.
The car park at the city's east end has five ground-level retail tenancies, and above that 1200 car bays over a series of levels.
The tower overlooks Flinders Street and the Yarra River. In addition to the car parks, it has five levels of retail and six levels of office space.
The buyer is HK Realway, a private player that has been steadily accumulating a local portfolio. Two years ago the Hong Kong group bought a George Street office tower in Sydney from Abacus Property Group and its joint venture partner AM Alpha for $112.3 million, the AFR noted.
For the Flinders Street property, HK Realway, made an unconditional bid through Thomson Geer's Eu Ming Lim.
The Hong Kong platform bought a North Sydney office tower for about $58 million from CorVal in 2015. It also owns the owns the Cinema Centre Car Park in the Sydney CBD.
Williams is best known for his property and horse racing interests. He founded Hudson Conway in the 1970s and developed the Crown casino complex. He also owns a record five winners of the Melbourne Cup.
In January, Williams sold the Southbank headquarters of Hudson Conway for $11 million to a mainland Chinese company.
That property had development approval for a 16-level residential tower of 91 apartments.
