Backflipping tycoon Lang Walker finally quits Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley
The Sydney based property tycoon Lang Walker has abandoned plans to build a $400 million office tower in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.
Fund manager EG has bought the site at 801 Ann Street from Walker Corporation for $27.72 million.
Walker paid $22.2 million in 2015.
Designed by COX Architecture, the proposed tower (above and below) consisted of 46,659 sqm of gross floor area (commercial and retail).
Walker general manager for Queensland development Peter Saba had previously believed the tower would raise the bar for commercial property.
A previous development application was lodged for the site by Walker Corporation in December 2014 which consisted of two 19 and 23 storey residential towers.
In mid-2017 Saba said the slowdown in the inner-city high-rise residential market due to oversupply had been behind the decision to scrap the residential towers plan.
"The outlook for the commercial property sector is brighter," Mr Saba said at the time.
The asset will be acquired for the Yield Plus Infrastructure No.2 fund which was launched in August 2016 with a $750 million real estate mandate.
Ann Street, Fortitude Valley is the 8th asset to join the fund which has now acquired approximately $330 million of assets across Australia.
The fund strategy is to acquire yield producing real estate with repositioning potential, near new or upgraded infrastructure.
The transaction was brokered off market by Seb Turnbull of JLL Brisbane.
EG associate director capital transactions, Sean Fleming noted the island site allowed "a number of opportunities to enhance the value of the asset over the long term."
