Irongate launches unlisted industrial property fund

Oksana Patron

27 November 2023

Irongate has announced the launch of its first fund, since a management buyout in 2023, with $57.25 million acquisition of industrial properties in Sydney’s Smithfield as its seed asset.

The new unlisted Irongate Industrial Property Fund, which aims to focus on low-risk infill sites with large land holdings and under-rented assets in key logistics hubs across the country, will acquire Smithfield’s property together with co-investment from APAC-focused private equity real estate investment group Phoenix Property Investors.

The strategy of the new fund is familiar with one for the group and will follow in the footsteps of the Irongate REIT which has been recently sold to Charter Hall.

At the same time, the firm said the fund would be managed by Irongate with seed funding from both Irongate and its partner, the Johannesburg-listed Burstone Group (formerly Investec Property Fund).

Irongate and Phoenix had established a relationship far back in 2019 and, according to the company, they would work together to expand the portfolio by acquiring future assets together.

The property was exclusively sold to Irongate via Colliers Trent Gallagher, Gavin Bishop, Sean Thomson, and Peter Dale.

“This key infill industrial asset was highly sought-after due to its short WALE allowing immediate rental upside for the incoming purchaser,” selling agent Trent Gallagher of Colliers, said.

“The Western Sydney industrial market has a vacancy rate at present of 0.2 per cent which is causing significant demand for any up-and-coming vacancies resulting in record rents being paid by tenants on a regular basis,” Colliers’ Gavin Bishop added.

Irongate’s portfolio is now valued at well over $2 billion and includes the $1 billion redevelopment of Younghusband in Melbourne’s inner west, a joint venture with Ivanhoe Cambridge; along with multiple joint ventures with Frasers, including the soon to be launched Bradmill site in Yarraville.