DevWA in $51m Henderson deal

DevelopmentWA has purchased a Henderson ship building factory from engineering consultant AME for $51 million, returning two Australian Marine Complex lots back to the government.

The state’s land developer bought 49 to 53 Clarence Beach Road, which includes a 12,740 square metre ship building factory occupied by Australia’s largest superyacht builder Echo Yachts.  

The 4.63-hectare property sits across two titles on the waterfront of Henderson’s Australian Marine Complex, which is one of two naval shipbuilding locations in the country.

DevelopmentWA’s plans for the site are unclear, but Echo only has three months remaining on its lease.

CBRE capital markets director Derek Barlow and senior director industrial and logistics Jarrad Grierson brokered the deal.

“Numerous buyers, including a range of international groups showed significant interest in the opportunity, but ultimately the vendors chose to transact with the state government given the simplicity of terms presented,” Mr Barlow said.

Mr Grierson described the property as a unique asset, given its proximity to the water, which made it one of the few sites able to service the ship manufacturing and service industry.

“Strong fundamentals, primarily in the areas of defence and mining services, will continue to drive growth and positively impact the Henderson industrial market,” he said.

DevelopmentWA acting chief executive officer Fiona Barclay said the 4.65ha site was considered highly strategic to the state.

“It has direct frontage to the Northern Harbour of Jervoise Bay within the ship building precinct and immediately adjoins DevelopmentWA’s landholdings on both the northern and southern boundaries,” she said.

“The acquisition will consolidate DevelopmentWA’s landholdings to provide over 600 linear metres of continuous waterfront within the AMC.”

Ms Barclay added that the acquisition would increase the state’s flexibility for future expansion of the AMC to accommodate industry growth in the Henderson precinct.

“The AMC is a world-class centre of excellence for manufacturing, fabrication, assembly, technology, repair and maintenance servicing activities in the marine, defence and resource industries, which also incorporates state of the art recreational boating launching, storage and servicing facilities for the WA community,” she said.