Returning Real Value is not defined by a single asset class, market or holding period. It is created where discipline, timing, local insight and hands-on asset management come together. Australia has become a strong example of this approach for AM ALPHA. Across Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, the firm has invested in very different assets, ranging from CBD offices and heritage buildings to logistics, but always with a consistent mindset:
Identify potential early, improve what matters and realise value when the timing is right.
Down Under with upside potential
Australia offers many of the qualities long-term real estate investors look for: economic resilience, institutional depth, transparency and a mature sustainability framework. Standards such as NABERS and Green Star are not just labels, but increasingly relevant indicators of future competitiveness and value retention.
The opportunity is rarely obvious from a distance. You have to understand the local context, the asset and also the moment.
Les Koltai, Head of Australia at AM ALPHA
For AM ALPHA, however, the market’s appeal has never been only about macro fundamentals. The decisive factor has been local knowledge – understanding cities, submarkets, occupier demand and timing at street level. Australia is a market where you need conviction, but also precision.
Sydney: spotting the moment
309 George Street remains one of the clearest examples of this approach. AM ALPHA acquired the 15-storey retail and commercial building in Sydney’s CBD core in 2011 at an attractive entry point, shortly before the major tenant vacated the property.
While the counter-cyclical acquisition of an office asset in such a prime location at that time presented great value, rather than relying on market circumstances alone, AM ALPHA invested around A$5.6 million into a comprehensive repositioning. Building services were upgraded, the lobby was renewed, a rooftop terrace was added, and the property was improved floor by floor. When the asset was sold in 2015, it had become an even more attractive location in one of Australia’s most closely watched office markets for many off-shore investors.
“The project showed what Returning Real Value can mean in practice: not simply buying well, but actively changing the quality, relevance and marketability of an asset based on strong conviction and, most importantly, deep local knowledge” says Les Koltai.
Brisbane: reading the city early
In Brisbane, AM ALPHA’s investment story is more layered. At 179 North Quay, the focus was on improving a well-located CBD office asset in a city benefiting from infrastructure investment and long-term growth momentum. TC Beirne followed a different logic: it was a listed former department store in Fortitude Valley, carefully restored and repositioned in a submarket increasingly shaped by creative businesses, innovation and urban change.
With the Queensland Government’s “The Precinct” innovation hub as anchor tenant, TC Beirne became more than a heritage asset. It became part of a broader transformation story in Fortitude Valley.
“Brisbane rewards investors who look closely,” says Simon Purdy, Country Manager Australia at AM ALPHA. “179 North Quay and TC Beirne were very different assets, but both offered the opportunity to create value through active management, local understanding and a clear view of how the city was evolving.”
This is where AM ALPHA’s approach fits Brisbane particularly well. The firm focuses less on trophy assets for their own sake than on well-located buildings that can be made more useful, more sustainable and more relevant for occupiers.
Adelaide: value beyond the obvious map
Adelaide adds another dimension to our Australian story. On paper, the Treasury Wine Estates national distribution centre in Penfield could not be more different from a Sydney CBD office or a heritage-led Brisbane repositioning. Yet the underlying logic was similar: identify scarcity, understand demand and act before the broader market fully recognises the opportunity.
The logistics centre comprised around 45,000 sqm across two buildings, plus 10.95 hectares of development land. Its direct access to the SCT Penfield Rail Freight Centre and onward links via Port Adelaide to Melbourne, Perth and Darwin made it a strategically well-positioned asset.
Fully leased to Treasury Wine Estates until 2030, it combined infrastructure relevance, income security and scarcity in a market where high-quality logistics assets of this kind were in short supply.
AM ALPHA acquired the property in 2021 and sold it in 2022. The transaction is a reminder that Returning Real Value does not always mean holding an asset for many years. Sometimes, it means recognising when the business plan has been delivered and when the right exit window has opened.
“Adelaide showed that we are prepared to look beyond the most obvious locations when the fundamentals are compelling,” says Les Koltai. “The asset had the right combination of tenant quality, infrastructure access and scarcity. That is exactly the kind of opportunity where discipline at the moment of acquisition and sale really matter.”
One approach, several asset classes
Viewed together, AM ALPHA’s Australian investments are not just a sequence of successful transactions. They show that the firm’s value-add approach can work across sectors, cities and market cycles – provided the investment case is specific, the asset management plan is clear and the local market is properly understood.
That approach also extends to sustainability. AM ALPHA’s “Manage-to-Green” philosophy focuses on improving properties during the holding period and strengthening their long-term resilience.
In Brisbane, for example, a 100-kilowatt solar array was installed on the roof of TC Beirne. In a market where environmental performance increasingly influences occupier demand and asset value, such measures are not cosmetic. They are part of the investment case.
“Returning Real Value is about improving an asset in ways that are commercially relevant and future-oriented,” says Les Koltai. “Sustainability is a key part of that. It helps protect value, but it also makes buildings more competitive for the people who use them and attractive to future buyers.”
Returning Real Value –
the Aussie way
AM ALPHA’s Australian activity shows value creation in different forms: repositioning in Sydney, urban change in Brisbane and logistics scarcity in Adelaide.
The assets differ, but the method is consistent: selective acquisition, well researched markets underpinned by local conviction, active asset management and disciplined exits.
That is the strongest way to read AM ALPHA’s Australian story: not as a collection of individual deals, but as a proof point for the firm’s investment philosophy. Returning Real Value is possible across cycles, cities and asset classes – when you know the market well enough to see potential before it becomes obvious.
