Chinese buyer secures Woodend neighbourhood shopping centre

Chinese buyer secures Woodend neighbourhood shopping centre
Staff reporterDecember 7, 2020

An offshore Chinese buyer has secured the 19th Hole Shopping Centre in Woodend, acquiring the 18,201sqm site for almost $18 million.

The neighbourhood shopping centre was listed for the first time in 50 years by Colliers International who fielded more than 150 enquiries from local, syndicate, institutional and offshore buyers.

Located in Woodend, about 70km north-west of the Melbourne CBD, 19th Hole Shopping Centre is a Coles-anchored neighbourhood shopping centre with 18 specialty tenants.

Leased at 100% and returning a net income of $1.48 million, the Coles anchor is expected to vacate at the conclusion of its lease in February 2019.

“19th Hole Shopping Centre was a complex transaction due to the imminent departure of the Coles anchor,” agent Tom Noonan said.

“As part of our strategy, we approached a number of supermarket operators prior to campaign launch and discussed the opportunity to backfill the Coles space.

“Integral to the successful sale was identifying the repositioning opportunity to prospective purchasers and providing upfront solutions to any immediate shortfalls, allowing buyers to refocus on price and terms.”

The centre traded on an initial yield of 5.11 percent excluding the Coles income, further underpinning the strong appetite for Victorian retail investments and another example of a first-time retail acquisition by an off-shore buyer.

“The campaign attracted an overwhelming amount of enquiry, with a growing number of local and off-shore privates looking to acquire shopping centre assets,” Mr Noonan said.

“A lack of core stabilised assets coming on market is seeing an increased number of buyers move up the risk-curve, which in turn is seeing extremely strong results for assets such as 19th Hole Shopping Centre.”

Mr Noonan said 2016 had seen very few shopping centres transact in Victoria year-to-date.

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