One of the men behind the Rio Hotel And Casino Macau has reportedly splashed out $119 million in order to purchase energy giant ExxonMobil Corporation’s Australian headquarters in the Southbank district of Melbourne.
According to a report from The Australian Financial Review newspaper, Loi Keong Kuong, who runs the Macau casino under a gaming concession from Galaxy Entertainment Group Limited, has recently made a series of property investments in Singapore while bidding on other assets in Victoria and is now the new owner of the impressive 236,806 sq ft property on the south side of the Yarra River.
“It’s a signature Melbourne building,” Isabella Tse, a director for Hong Kong-based property investment firm Reliance Future, told The Australian Financial Review.
Tse, who represented Loi in the deal, stated that the 20-story ExxonMobil Corporation building stands opposite the popular Southbank pedestrian bridge, which includes the unique floating Ponyfish Island at its base, and will continue to be occupied by the multi-national oil and gas firm as part of a short-term lease.
The Australian Financial Review reported that ExxonMobil Corporation began moves to offload the Australian property in June and is investigating sites of around 86,111 sq ft located elsewhere in the state’s largest city including options in the nearby Docklands district such as a new development from Mirvac on Collins Street.
Once known as the Esso Headquarters, the office building at 12 Riverside Quay is one of Southbank’s most prized assets and was designed by Peddle Thorp. Built in 1995, it features a curtain wall of chrome and tinted glass with distinctive curved sections while its podium includes a large rainforest atrium.