Boutique Fund Manager Buying Brisbane Offices From Deka for $287M Ahead of Olympics

Boutique Queensland real estate fund manager Marquette Properties has agreed to pay A$400 million ($287 million) to purchase a Brisbane office block from Germany’s Deka Immobilien Investments, as the company’s latest in a series of bets on commercial assets in Brisbane’s premier commercial district. 

Marquette’s purchase of Central Plaza II at 66 Eagle Street, in what locals refer to as Brisbane’s “Golden Triangle,” comes eight months after the company founded by former developer Toby Lewis paid A$52 million for the David Longland Building, about 800 metres (875 yards) away, with Lewis pointing to an economic wave in advance of the 2032 Olympic Games in the city as driving a compelling case for office investments.

“Brisbane is our home town and, fortunately, it is a town of great growth, prosperity and potential and we have got this defined growth point of the Olympics on the horizon to work towards,” Lewis told Mingtiandi in a phone call. “All the infrastructure, all the growth, all the people moving here beyond the Olympics, gives a lot of reason for optimism.

Lewis says Marquette spends a lot of time on individual deals and takes “years chipping away at the deals that we want.” He declined to comment on a fundraising round for A$225 million for a new trust to help fund the Central Plaza II purchase due to confidentiality requirements.

Along a Bend in the River

Having assembled a portfolio of nine office properties and assets under management of A$1.39 billion, Marquette’s deal for Central Plaza II is part of the company’s strategy to buy and manage “prime strategic office and retail assets.” 

That approach centres on the Golden Triangle, an area in a bend on the Brisbane River which has become a redevelopment hub, thanks to initiatives such as Waterfront Brisbane, an A$2.5 billion redevelopment of the Eagle Street Piers and Waterfront Place precinct in the central business district led by Sydney fund manager Dexus. Also in the neighborhood is 360 Queen Street, an A$800 million office tower being developed by Charter Hall and Investa.

The headline price for Central Plaza II translates to A$12,561 per square metre for the 31,844 square metres of lettable area spread across 23 levels of the building, based on figures in an investment memorandum for a closed-end trust which has been established to partially fund the purchase.

The 36-year-old building is 95 percent let and is providing net passing income of A$24.4 million in the current financial year from tenants. Some 87 percent of the rental income comes from office leases, with the remainder sourced primarily from parking and retail, according to the memorandum. The weighted average term to lease expiration is 3.3 years.

Federal and government bodies account for 44 percent of the leasable area, with the Queensland Investment Corporation taking just over a fifth, while law firms and financial and professional companies make up a similar proportion.

Recent upgrades allow the “asset to retain and capture a diversified tenant base of high quality national and international occupiers, supported by the precinct’s status as the core financial and professional services hub of Brisbane,” the memorandum states.

Frankfurt-based Deka had purchased 66 Eagle Street from a joint venture between Lendlease’s Australian Property Fund Commercial and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) for A$380 million in 2020.  

Olympics Boosts Brisbane Offices

Marquette is expanding its Brisbane office portfolio as the city’s property market is showing resilience in the face of rising interest rates and higher fuel costs.

“Brisbane’s CBD office market continues to record steady demand, although enquiry levels have moderated slightly since late 2025. Tenant interest remains concentrated in prime grade assets, supported by ongoing upgrade and consolidation activity among larger occupiers seeking improved amenity and long-term certainty,” according to a recent report from Cushman & Wakefield.

Net absorption slipped to 10,007 square metres over the past six months, “reflecting a softening in leasing momentum rather than a shift in underlying demand” as future supply is tightening, Cushman said in the report.

Marquette is seeking to raise A$225 million for its MQT CP2 Trust, which aims for a total fund size of A$472 million including equity and senior debt to fund the acquisition, refurbishments and leasing costs. The final sale price for the building drops to A$380 million should certain outstanding incentives be adjusted in the trust’s favour, according to Marquette’s memorandum.

That translates to a price of A$11,933 per square metre and an initial passing yield of 6.43 percent, according to the document. By contrast half of nearby Central Plaza I sold for A$11,600 per square metre late last year, with a yield of 6.43 percent, according to the memorandum, which lays out comparable deals in the area based on data from JLL, CBRE and Knight Frank.

The property offers a rare chance for full ownership of a prime asset in the central business district’s River Quarter precinct, Marquette said, noting that “the eight prime assets in this core location have traded once every 17 years on average since completion.”

Marquette in 2021 paid A$225 million to acquire nearby 10 Eagle Street from Dexus and CPPIB, with that building spanning 27,826 square metres of lettable space, according to its website.

More recently the purchase of the David Longland Building at 63 George Street in the central business district provided the investor with 10,586 square metres of space that yields 11.27 percent, according to its website.

Also in the Golden Triangle, the investment company is working with Dexus to repurpose 41 George Street, the former home of the Queensland Government after the companies purchased the 29,960 square metre property vacant in 2024 for A$123 million.