QSuper expands American assets

QSuper has added to its diversified international real estate portfolio with the acquisition of a prime CBD office block in downtown Austin, Texas.

The purchase of Chase Tower, including ground-floor retail and an adjoining seven-storey parking station, was completed in August and is one of a number of American assets now owned by QSuper, including One Times Square in New York City.

The 21-storey, 36,000 sq metre building is 98% leased to a mix of financial, professional services and technology tenants and is expected to provide strong cashflows to QSuper members.

QSuper was attracted to invest in Austin because of its existing and projected strong growth, with a business-friendly environment (including no state income tax), high quality of life, low cost of living and low unemployment rate.

The city was rated as the best place to live and fourth best place to retire in the United States by US News and World Report this year, based on desirability, value, job market prospects and net migration.

Additionally, future office development in Austin will be restricted due to a shortage of downtown developable land and legislation now in place to preserve views of the State Capitol building.

The purchase of Chase Tower reduces the QSuper portfolio’s¹ exposure to listed equity markets by increasing its real estate exposure to 7%.

The diversified QSuper real estate portfolio includes holdings in Australian and UK office and retail markets, US office and apartment markets and Continental Europe industrial.

Chase Tower was identified and purchased for QSuper by CIM Group, a community-focused real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender and developer, which will continue to operate the building on behalf of QSuper.

1 The term ‘QSuper portfolio’ is used to refer collectively to the underlying portfolios of assets that in combination make up the individual asset allocations of the QSuper Lifetime, Balanced, Moderate, and Aggressive investment options. Each of our investment options has a different objective, risk profile and asset allocation. Visit qsuper.qld.gov.au for more information. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.