SINGAPORE (EDGEPROP) - PGIM Real Estate, which is part of the global asset management business of Prudential Financial, has acquired 444 Queen Street in Brisbane, Australia, on Oct 20.

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The building was purchased from the Abacus Property Group and The Public Trustee of Queensland for $54.4 million.

The building occupies a 1,708 sqm (18,384.76 sq ft) site with a total floor area of 13,967 sqm, which translates into a psm price of $3,894.90 on the total floor area. It has 31m of frontage to Queen Street, which is the main street of the city. The building also comes with 72 parking lots.

The 22-storey building is located within the sought-after Golden Triangle in the city’s central business district (CBD).

In addition, the building enjoys close proximity to direct riverfront access right across the street, the city’s Queen Street Mall, Howard Smith Wharves and Eagle Street Pier, all of which offer strong tenant amenity.

This is the second transaction on Brisbane’s Queen Street by PGIM Real Estate. In August this year, the real estate manager partnered Fortius Funds Management on the acquisition of 307 Queen Street for $214 million.

PGIM Real Estate also has a stake in 130 Queen Street, alongside Marquette Properties.

According to PGIM Real Estate’s managing director and head of Australia, Steve Bulloch, the group is “confident in Brisbane’s longer-term fundamentals”.

This is “driven by strong interstate migration, continued infrastructure spend and increasing offshore investor interest”, particularly with the city’s recent announcement on hosting of the 2032 Olympics, he says.

“The ability to acquire a Queen Street building at this rate ($3,895/sqm) provides an opportunity for us to execute our strategy of repositioning well-located but tired assets to meet the needs of future tenants,” continues Bulloch.

According to PGIM Real Estate, it has plans to reposition the building to Grade-A standard through a refurbishment programme to modernise the building and optimise its prime waterfront location and river views.