Investors see gold in Geoscience Australia’s green roadmap

Geoscience Australia, located in Canberra, Australia, is a highly specialized government building comprising a mix of office, laboratories, technical equipment, and amenities. Originally built in 1997, it now required substantial investment to meet modern standards for an Australian government building.

Our client who owned the building, and were currently leasing it to Geoscience Australia, were looking to sell the property to capitalise on their investment.

However, the potential buyer would need to lift the NABERS sustainability rating from current 2 stars to a minimum 4.5 stars to retain the Australian Government as tenants at the end of the government lease, which would be in 10-years’ time. Even though having Geoscience Australia as the leaseholder added value to the building, this was a significant obstacle to overcome given the Australian government is committed to the ‘National Green Leases’ Act, which requires all new leasing space above 2,000sqm be of a minimum 4.5-star NABERS energy rating.

Anyone investing in this property would need to be guided through the process of meeting Australian government set environmental standards, before renewing the current 10-year lease. With this challenge, our client turned to JLL, to partner and facilitate the brokering of this property. JLL’s expertise in sustainability solutions would pave the way for the Geoscience building to meet the needs of forward-thinking investors.

Working hand-in-hand with our client JLL created a NABERS compliant pathway to Net Zero by bringing together our National Investment, ESG, and Sustainability teams to identify areas for improvement.

Practical recommendations and innovative ESG guidance revealed healthy financial outcomes with meaningful environmental benefits by pairing JLL’s pioneering insight, with cutting-edge technology. This included a roadmap with a full improvement program with timelines and net zero upgrade costs, which were communicated 1-on-1 to investors, providing assurances that the project would help them meet their targets.

Investors were given confidence that JLL’s robust planning and advice would lead to a future-proof building that complied with the National Green Leases Act. This plan toward compliance was used to attract and consult with investors. Having a clear plan in place led our client to a successful sale of the building.

The Net Zero roadmap illustrating how the Geoscience Australia building would reach its sustainability targets made the building significantly more attractive to investors. This roadmap would allow Geoscience Australia to remain in their building, which meant our client was able to reach a profitable sale with Charter Hall for $363,500,000.

With a clear and positive path forward for this beautiful building, the final sale represented the largest commercial transaction on record in the Australian Capital Territory market.

Talk to Capital Markets at JLL