Glory Orient seeks $100m for Elizabeth Street gem
Office players are on the hunt for counter-cyclical plays and some are also chasing longer-term development opportunities. Sydney property circles are abuzz with talk that Lendlease is rekindling its interest in Shimao's 175 Liverpool Street, and Charter Hall is chasing a capital partner for 201 Elizabeth Street, where it is chasing a capital partner.
The Elizabeth Street block, owned by Glory Orient Investments, has been held as an office investment since it was bought for $67m in 2014, and could be held as an office building ahead of any longer-term conversion play.
The private Asian group wants to sell its long-held B-grade asset on the prominent corner at 75 Elizabeth Street. It has dual frontages to Elizabeth and King streets, and views that make it attractive to residential and hotel players.
The building is also positioned in the heart of the financial core, allowing for a potential office play for investors chasing value-add investments. The property is surrounded by the city's major office towers, Westfield Sydney, and the Pitt Street Mall.
The boutique B-Grade office building comprises 6141sq m of net lettable area across 15 storeys, with views over Hyde Park. It has access to the Supreme Court of NSW and the luxury King Street retail precinct, which houses flagship stores such as Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Chanel, Hermès, Dior, and Valentino.
Real estate agency Savills is handling the building. 'The price point, corner position, location, intergenerational characteristics and value-add opportunities will be well received by the market, as investors recognise the scarcity of the offering,' sales agent Savills' Ben Azar said.
Co-agent, Savills' Adrian Bokolis, said offshore private and institutional capital saw relative value in the Sydney office market when compared to alternate markets across Asia, Europe and the US.
Ben Wilmot
Commercial Property Editor
Ben Wilmot has been The Australian's commercial property editor since 2013. He was previously a property journalist with the Australian Financial Review.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
23 minutes ago
- ABC News
Markets live updates: ASX to rise after fresh highs on Wall Street as US rate cut bets rise
The local share market is poised to recover some of yesterday's losses, after the S&P 500 notched a new record on Wall Street, as bets on US interest rate cuts rose. Jobs numbers for July will be released at 11:30am AEST, with the unemployment rate tipped to have improved slightly to 4.2 per cent. Follow the day's financial news and insights from our specialist business reporters on our live blog. Disclaimer: this blog is not intended as investment advice.
ABC News
23 minutes ago
- ABC News
Women in mining say industry missing out on female leadership talent
At this year's Diggers and Dealers conference, about 2,500 mining delegates touched down in WA's gold city of Kalgoorlie to hear from the very top of the industry. But of the more than 40 directors, chief executives, and chairs who took to the panel stage, only one was a woman. Chief executive and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) Rowena Smith said she was "very pleased" to have been invited to speak. "I spent an enormous amount of time in the audience in the early years, and I didn't see any women on the stage," she said. Ms Smith said the increase in women at the event was positive. "Twenty years ago … there were [also] very few women in the audience," she said. "As I stood there on the stage on Monday, I was looking out into so many women's faces." The 2025 Global Gender Gap Report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) shows the number of top-level management positions held by women in the oil, gas and mining industry is only around 16 per cent. It is a fact author and gold expert Sandra Close knows all too well. She was the first woman geologist in the field in Australia at a time when the industry looked very different. "[When] I started, it was zero women with hands-on jobs in the mining industry," Dr Close said. "It was quite a lot to break through." She moved from geology to high-level resource financing, later becoming the senior executive at a multinational resources group. But despite her accolades, including a nomination for Senior Australian of the Year, there is one part of the industry Dr Close never entered. According the WEF, in 2024, only about 14 per cent of new hires to top leadership positions in the oil, gas and mining industry were women. It is part of a steady global decline in women being hired to top-level management roles since the pandemic. Journalist and equality advocate Catherine Fox said it was "just not good enough." "The number of women at the decision-making table is … sadly either plateauing or going backwards," she said. Ms Fox said she thought US President Donald Trump's dismantling of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) laws in the US was starting to spread to Australia. She believes changes are already happening "under the surface". "I think that backlash that women [have] already gone far enough, in fact we might have gone too far, is gathering pace," she said. "We fought for years to get the word 'diversity' taken seriously, now people are changing it to things like 'productivity.'" Ms Smith said it was important the industry encouraged more women into leadership roles. "One of the things that will encourage that is men seeing women do the job … seeing is believing," Ms Smith said. She also said the industry needed to stop holding women to a higher standard than men. "We're perceived to be a higher risk candidate, and therefore the benchmark seems to go up," she said. "I don't think men have the same need [as women] to be exceptional." Dr Close said the mining industry could not afford to continue excluding women like herself from top roles. "When you'd have the sort of experience that I've had … I think it would have been fascinating," Dr Close said.
News.com.au
23 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Automaker boss says road ‘slug' must be fair
A leading electric automotive brand has urged the Federal Government not to 'slug' motorists with a new road user charge (RUC) that unfairly targets electric vehicle (EV) owners. Polestar's Australian boss Scott Maynard said the fuel excise gap created by EV adoption is an opportunity to consider the 'whole transport ecosystem' not simply a new charge targeting zero-emission drivers. 'Motorists are already subject to stamp duty, registration fees, fuel excise, Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT), Luxury Car Tax (LCT) in some cases, as well as tolls and parking space levies in the CBD,' he said. Earlier this week the Productivity Commission suggested a per-kilometre charge for electric vehicle (EV) owners as the fuel excise revenue is shrinking as more Australians switch to EVs. Maynard said the scheme, which Treasurer Jim Chalmers is fast-tracking, could be fair but only if it's applied equally across all vehicles and not used to squeeze money from drivers. 'Driving is an essential activity, so it's important the government has a clear understanding of what it would be seeking to achieve with a road user charge. Only when we understand that question can a framework be developed, and commentary applied,' he said. The Swedish EV maker argued that revenue from any new scheme should be ring-fenced for road maintenance and infrastructure, unlike fuel excise which 'just goes into the pot of government spending'. 'Transparency is key,' he said. Maynard also warned against a 'one-size-fits-all' approach that could penalise rural and regional drivers. 'We do need to be careful that people in regional and rural areas are not unfairly targeted given the long distances travelled to obtain services such as medical care, education, and household supplies,' he said. 'We don't want to have a situation where people who commute long distances from regional or rural areas are then at a disadvantage to drivers who can afford to live in the inner city.' Maynard suggested Australia should look to 'best practice other markets' and consider both distance and weight to reflect road wear, focus on the biggest emitters, such as heavy vehicles, if cutting carbon is a primary goal. 'I don't think any driver – electric or otherwise – will have an issue with a road user charge system to replace fuel excise as long as it is fair and equitable,' he said. Maynard added that the system should be designed on clear goals, whether reducing congestion, cutting emissions, of funding road maintenance - and if emissions reduction is the aim, 'targeting heavy vehicles with higher emissions should be a priority'. 'Australia will need to identify its goals with a road user charging system and establish a framework accordingly,' he said. 'There's a myriad of issues that need to be addressed before a road user charge can be applied.' The Treasurer's office said that they 'will work with the states and territories on policies in this area, but we'll do it in a considered and consultative way and take the time to get it right'.
