Takeover target Australand Property Group has lifted pressure on its suitor Stockland after buying a massive land parcel in the Melbourne suburb of Burwood that can accommodate a $650 million mixed-use project.
Australand snapped up the former quarry from US group Reading International for $65 million, and is well placed to pursue plans for office towers, shopping centres and about 1000 homes.
The purchase helps Australand restock its apartment development pipeline and will raise the bar for any Stockland bid.
It comes just a week after Australand sealed a deal to buy a prime industrial development site in Sydney’s Horsley Park, which can accommodate a $135m development.
Australand is also rumoured to have drawn a capital partner to support the purchase a half-stake in Melbourne’s $400m Freshwater Place, which may trump a deal by GPT’s wholesale office fund to buy the stake.
Reading held the Burwood property at $52.1m and said the sale was the second major deal it had made in the last 12 months.
In October last year it sold a development property in the Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds for $23m.
The US group appointed Macquarie Capital to sell the land in 2010.