Sentinel seals deal on more Mackay property

May 20, 2016

Adrian Ballantyne | Real Commercial

Warren Ebert’s Sentinel Property Group has continued its expansion in regional Queensland, solidifying its presence in Mackay with the acquisition of another industrial property for $6.5 million.

Brisbane-based Sentinel, which has a national property portfolio worth in excess of $1 billion, is already one of the largest private owners of commercial property in the Mackay region. The new acquisition is the company’s seventh property in the Queensland regional hub, bringing its total Mackay property holdings to around $200 million. It is also its third property in the key Mackay industrial suburb of Paget, which is 8.5km south-west of the Mackay CBD and 3km south-west of the Mackay Airport. The property at 37-39 Interlink Court comprises a modern industrial facility and is fully leased to global engineering group Sandvik until May 2020 with a five-year option.

Sentinel managing director Ebert says Mackay is an important focus of the company’s growth strategy. “While the coal sector and Mackay’s residential property market have been facing difficulties, at the current prices we see a lot of strong upside in commercial property investment in the region, driven by its diversified economy and long-term growth prospects,” he says. “There is still an enormous amount of large-scale mining, infrastructure and transport investment underway and planned for Mackay, and commercial property in the region is well positioned to benefit from this.

“All property sectors, and business in general, move in cycles and we believe we are at or near the bottom of the cycle.” Ebert has had a personal involvement in the Mackay property market stretching back to 1990 when he sold the old Suncorp building. He says his most memorable local project was his 2005 development of Mackay’s landmark Sydney Street Markets. As well as its latest acquisition, Sentinel also owns two other industrial properties in Paget, leased to Orionstone and Toll Transport.

Other Sentinel holdings in Mackay include the Northpoint Homemaker Centre, the Birch Carroll and Coyle cinemas complex, and adjoining The Hub @ Greenfields office building. Sentinel also owns a 69.4ha site at Sarina, south of Mackay, to be developed into a large-scale staged residential subdivision. Sentinel’s latest property in Paget was built in 2010 and has a total lettable area of 4671sqm, representing only 22% of its total site area of 21,000sqm. The sale of the property was negotiated by Colliers International’s Stewart Gamblin.