Launceston's Cimitiere House, earning $1.98m a year, hits the market

Cimitiere House, the Launceston office tower anchored by the Tasmanian Department of Health, has been placed on the market through an expressions-of-interest campaign closing 11 November, run jointly by CBRE and Elders Commercial. Commercial Real Estate reported the campaign, and the detail below follows its coverage.

Why it matters

A stabilised, government-anchored office asset coming to market outside Hobart is a test of investor appetite in the north of the state, where sale campaigns of this scale are less frequent than in the capital. The building carries a 5-star NABERS energy rating, a specification that matters to institutional and government tenants weighing lease renewals against sustainability targets, and it gives the campaign a point of difference from older CBD stock.

The vendor is not named in the EOI campaign. Cimitiere House has been held by the same owner since early 2012, and the listing identifies only “the vendor” throughout, so no developer or company can be attributed to the sale. For agents and investors, that leaves the income line and the tenancy mix as the basis for pricing.

CBRE’s Shaun Venables said the campaign offered a scarce entry point into the Launceston office market. “This is a rare opportunity to secure one of Launceston’s landmark office assets,” he said.

The numbers

The building produces net income of $1.98m a year across 5,257 sqm of net lettable area, and the Tasmanian Department of Health supplies over half of that income, making the state government the building’s dominant tenant. A $4.5m refurbishment was completed to secure expanded state government tenancies, work that underpins the NABERS rating and the government’s extended commitment to the site. Other tenants named in the campaign are law firm Rae & Partners, engineering consultancy GHD, forestry group Timberlands Pacific and publisher Rural Press, giving the tower a tenancy mix split between government and established private-sector occupiers. The property spans 113-115 Cimitiere Street and 34 George Street, Launceston, and the EOI is being run by CBRE’s Shaun Venables, Matthew Wright and George Wilkinson alongside Elders Commercial’s David Webster and Cale Ayres.

What’s next

The expressions-of-interest campaign closes 11 November, and no buyer or price guide has been disclosed ahead of that date. It follows a smaller Launceston change of hands this month, when The Commercial Hotel sold for offers over $400,000 plus stock after 18 years with the same publican, a reminder that Launceston’s commercial market is moving across very different asset scales at once. Because the vendor is unnamed and has held the asset since 2012, the sale outcome will be the first public signal of who takes ownership next, rather than confirmation of a deal already in train. For developers, builders and agents assessing the Launceston office market, the $4.5m refurbishment spend and the resulting NABERS rating are the clearest evidence in the public record of what buyers will be asked to pay a premium for: a largely government-tenanted building that has already had capital spent on it to lock in that tenancy, rather than a vacant or secondary asset needing fresh investment. Until the EOI closes and a result is reported, the building’s net income and lettable area, not any developer name, are the only verified facts available to the market.