BGO Teams With Centuria to Buy Three Sydney Sheds From Goodman for $130M

North American fund manager BGO has acquired three Sydney warehouses for A$201 million ($129.6 million) through a joint venture with Aussie property investor Centuria Capital Group, adding to a salvo of recent deals in one of the world’s hottest industrial markets.

The portfolio comprises a trio of assets in the western suburbs of Smithfield and Seven Hills with a total of 45,000 square metres (484,376 square feet) of industrial space, the companies said in a release, as warehouse supply remains limited and vacancy sits around 2.7 percent in Sydney’s tightly held urban infill markets. The seller was industrial specialist Goodman Group.

The transaction marks the maiden partnership between Sydney’s Centuria and US-based BGO, which did business as BentallGreenOak until a rebranding last year. The real estate unit of Canadian insurer Sun Life manages $86 billion in assets worldwide.

“This type of institutional partnership speaks to the strong appetite from international capital seeking to harness the strong domestic industrial sector tailwinds, particularly within infill markets which benefit from proximity to households and businesses alike,” said Centuria joint CEO Jason Huljich.

Serving 3.1M Households

The acquired properties include 28 and 45 Britton Street in Smithfield, together spanning 30,000 square metres of space, and 17 Stanton Road in Seven Hills with 15,830 square metres. The warehouses have access to major road networks and residential catchments, serving 3.1 million households, the companies said.

Centuria will serve as investment manager and property manager while holding a 5 percent interest in the portfolio. The group bills itself as one of the largest industrial landlords in Australasia, with more than 160 assets valued at A$6.2 billion, and it manages A$2.1 billion in assets on behalf of institutional investors.

“With Australia’s burgeoning population increasing demand from the industrial and logistic sector, coupled with limited new supply within infill markets, we believe macroeconomic tailwinds will persist throughout the medium term,” said Centuria fund management head Jesse Curtis. “These factors bode well for our institutional partners as well as Centuria securityholders.”

Centuria is no stranger to working with North American capital, having received a A$500 million mandate from Miami-based private equity firm Starwood in 2023. Hong Kong-listed shed builder ESR, which is in the process of being acquired by a Starwood-led consortium, once held as much as a 17.8 percent stake in Centuria but exited the investment in 2021.

Wild About Warehouses

The latest transaction in the Harbour City’s buzzing logistics space comes after Cushman & Wakefield tracked more than A$1 billion in industrial deals in the local market during the first quarter of the year, up from just A$152.5 million at the same point in 2024.

The three-month total was underpinned by Gateway Capital’s acquisition of the Connect Central Estate from Brookfield, in a deal Cushman pegged at close to A$315 million, and KKR and M&G’s separate partnerships with Aussie builder Stockland to invest in a shed portfolio valued at over A$800 million.

PGIM Real Estate on Monday announced a tie-up with Australia’s Cadence Property Group to acquire St Mary’s Intermodal Terminal in western Sydney from rail freight operator Pacific National for A$145 million.

The investment in the freight hub comes on top of the US fund manager’s February purchase of a 50 percent stake in a Queensland industrial estate from Stockland for A$207.5 million under a joint venture with KM Property Funds.