Federation Centres buys Centro Gympie for $64 million
Shopping centre landlord Federation Centres, previously called Centro Retail Australia, has purchased the Centro Gympie shopping centre in Queensland for $64 million.
The mall was previously held by the Centro MCS 9 property investment syndicate.
It is now wholly owned by Retail Direct Property, the direct property division of Federation Centres with its purchase part of ongoing plans to simplify the complex syndicate business it operated previously as the debt-laden Centro property group.
Centro Gympie is located at the corner of Bruce Highway and Excelsior Road in Gympie.
It has a gross lettable area of 14,054 square metres and offers 752 car spaces. Big W and Woolworths are anchor tenants on the property.
Gympie is a regional town in the Wide Bay-Burnett region of Queensland, Australia. It is about 160 kilometres north of Brisbane, and has a population of 18,602 according to the 2011 Census.
Federation Centres reported an interim net profit $115.91 million for the six months to December 31 2012 – its first complete first-half results under its new brand name.
In the prior corresponding period, then known as Centro Retail Australia, it reported a loss of $100 million for the six months to December 2011.
Federation Centres plans to buy other syndicated malls, spending $650 million on such acquisitions thus far.
Other properties under the Centro MCS 9 syndicate which have been purchased by Federation Centres include Centro Dianella in Western Australia, which it bought for $54 million.
Federation Centres also acquired full-ownership of the $570 million Bankstown shopping centre in NSW.
Last month Goldman Sachs upgraded its recommendation on Federation Centres from ‘neutral’ to ‘buy’ with factors behind this upgrade including the ongoing simplification of its syndicates business, asset acquisitions, non-core asset disposals and the rollout of its $1.1bn development pipeline.
Federation Centres plans to develop 16 shopping centres over the next five years.