PGIM in JV With Australia’s Elanor to Buy Melbourne Logistics Site

PGIM Real Estate and Elanor Investors Group have agreed to buy a last-mile logistics site in a southeastern suburb of Melbourne, launching the first-ever joint venture between the US and Australian fund managers.

ASX-listed Elanor has exchanged contracts to acquire the site at 522-550 Wellington Road in Mulgrave with a majority equity commitment from PGIM, according to a Thursday stock filing. Settlement of the deal is expected in early 2026.

The 19 hectare (47 acre) site near the Monash Freeway is tenanted to supermarket chain Woolworths until lease expiry in mid-2026. The JV partners then plan to develop a new project with 113,000 square metres (1.2 million square feet) of gross lettable area.

“The structural trends of e-commerce penetration and favourable long-term population growth outlook in Australia are making a strong investment case for the logistics sector,” PGIM Real Estate’s head of Australia transactions, Greg Linklater, said in a release. “We think this investment presents a compelling opportunity with strong rental growth prospects.”

Sheds, Beds Still Attract

Australian media reported Wednesday that Elanor and PGIM, a division of US insurance giant Prudential Financial, were preparing to spend about A$200 million ($134 million) for the Mulgrave site, with an eye towards developing a new A$600 million complex. The seller was identified as Harry Stamoulis, a local real estate figure.

When asked Thursday about the reports, a PGIM representative told Mingtiandi that “the numbers are not accurate.”

PGIM Real Estate is making the investment on behalf of its Asia Pacific strategy, with Australia country head Steve Bulloch noting that the fund manager has made six strategic investments in the country this year with a “strong emphasis” on the logistics and living sectors.

Mingtiandi reported last September that PGIM had joined forces with fund manager Point Capital on a residential-for-rent programmatic JV seeded with a project in Sydney’s Parramatta area and one in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. Each development is planned to have 300 smaller-scale rental apartments.

Icon Tie-Up Bears Fruit

News of Elanor’s latest partnership follows last month’s maiden acquisition under the Sydney-based firm’s joint venture with Icon Developments.

Elanor and Icon, a unit of Japan’s Kajima Corporation, agreed to acquire a 4.4 hectare site in the northern Melbourne suburb of Broadmeadows for development into a logistics estate with an end value of A$90 million.

The partners set up the JV late last year to develop an Australian logistics portfolio with a target value of A$250 million. Elanor’s previous investments in the segment include Junction Industrial Park in Sydney and a pair of warehouse facilities in the Northern Territory’s Darwin.

“We are pleased to partner with Icon Developments in this first acquisition for our joint venture,” Elanor CEO Glenn Willis said in June. “Furthermore, we look forward to building a significant Australian industrial and logistics portfolio through our diversified real estate funds management platform.”