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A Wellington property investment company has joined one of Australia's largest listed property investors to buy Auckland's West Plaza office block for $30 million.
David Hitchins of Buckingham Asset Management said his firm had assistance from ASX-listed Valad Property Group to buy the award-winning tower which Buckingham would refurbish and upgrade.
Stu Galloway, a major private Auckland investor, was the vendor.
Buckingham and Valad might soon buy other properties in the West Plaza block. Hitchins said he also had a conditional contract to buy the group of Albert St buildings alongside West Plaza and he was looking at options for this block.
Three years ago, plans emerged for a 40-level office tower on the site, although Galloway denied he was involved. No work started on the block. Landcorp, a little-known private company of which Galloway was a director, was said to be planning the tower for the block bounded by the Fanshawe/Customs St West intersection, Albert, Wolfe and Federal streets, behind West Plaza.
The Buckingham/Valad deal for West Plaza is the second time the pair have bought property together. Valad provided Buckingham with a structured finance deal for Maritime Tower on Wellington's Customhouse Quay.
In December, Valad launched an investment by Valad Capital Services of $15 million in Wellington's Maritime Tower at 2-10 Customhouse Quay.
Hitchins said Buckingham and Valad were in a structured managed partnership arrangement.
Valad already has a major investment at Albany on Auckland's northern boundary. Valad Capital Services spent $15 million in a preferred equity joint venture for the development of part of a town centre with the Symphony group of companies.
The joint venture has raised money from the public to buy just under 13ha of leasehold land within the existing Albany town centre.
The land would be developed into retail, office park and mixed-use components including a hotel, residential and retirement building, Valad said.
The Australian company said this year it had a pipeline of A$3.1 billion ($3.5 billion) in acquisition opportunities. Valad told the ASX it had spent more than A$600 million on property.
Valad is a stapled security, combining a listed property trust and a funds management business. Together, the entities have total assets under management of A$5.3 billion, including A$2.2 billion in managed funds and investments and A$3.1 billion in preferred equity joint venture projects.
The ASX-listed entity has a market capitalisation of A$1.8 billion.
