Align tipped to pay $85m for North Sydney office tower
Align Property Partners is speculated to pay about $85m for a fully leased North Sydney tower; the outlet's report says no sale is finalised.
Melbourne investor Align Property Partners is speculated to be paying about $85 million for a North Sydney office tower, realestatesource.com.au reported on 20 October 2026. The 14-level building at 90 Arthur Street, in the North Sydney local government area, is fully leased with a 3.5 year weighted average lease expiry, and the outlet’s report states no sale has been finalised.
The 9,304 square metre tower sits on a 1,187 square metre site near North Sydney train station and the Victoria Cross Metro station, with Sydney Harbour views. Major tenants named in the report include William Grant and Sons, the distiller behind Glenfiddich and Hendrick’s, and Epson. The building was marketed by Colliers agents Joseph Lin, Alex McColl, Catherine Scott and Tyler Talbot.
Why it matters
A confirmed sale would add a Sydney asset to Align’s existing portfolio of commercial office investments, which the firm builds around refurbishment, leasing and repositioning rather than ground up construction. The report describes value-add upside at 90 Arthur Street beyond its current form, with about 21,000 square metres of floor space identified as a possible redevelopment outcome, subject to planning approval. At about $85 million, the price works out to roughly $9,100 per square metre of floor area, our arithmetic from the reported figures, a reference point for North Sydney agents and valuers pricing comparable stock.
That kind of upside matters for how a buyer would price the asset. A fully leased tower with tenants locked in for 3.5 years on average gives an acquirer holding income while it works through any redevelopment application, rather than carrying a vacant building through the planning process.
The numbers
The tower carries a 4-star NABERS Energy rating, which the report says has a pathway to 5-star, and a 4.5-star NABERS Water rating. DWS, formerly Deutsche Asset Management, is named as the party offering 90 Arthur Street for sale. DWS bought the asset in 2016 for $74 million from Blackstone’s 151 Property Group, buying on behalf of DWS’s Grundbesitz Global property fund, and undertook an upgrade afterwards.
Align’s most recent disclosed deal of this kind, in 2020, saw it partner with capital partner Wingate to buy a five storey, 5,905 square metre office building at 1001 Nepean Highway, Moorabbin, from businessman Larry Kestelman for $16.65 million, before refurbishing and reletting it. At a speculated $85 million, the 90 Arthur Street deal would be more than five times the size of that Moorabbin purchase by price.
What’s next
Align’s interest is reported as speculation, not an agreed or settled transaction, and this report treats it as nothing more than that. No contract date, settlement timeline or confirmed purchase price appears in the source, and none is invented here. Any redevelopment of the identified 21,000 square metre floor space would need its own separate planning approval process, regardless of whether the sale itself proceeds.
A completed deal would add to a run of Sydney office transactions in October 2026. It follows OUE REIT’s agreed purchase of a 50 per cent stake in Sydney’s Salesforce Tower from Ping An, reported on 17 October 2026.