This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
YFG Shopping Centres has closed out a record year for the retail property sector with the $267 million acquisition of Brisbane’s Strathpine Centre from US giant Blackstone.
The convenience-based sub-regional shopping centre has a gross lettable area of 45,304 sqm and occupies a 17.47-hectare site in Brisbane’s northern suburbs.
It is anchored by a triple supermarket offer of Woolworths, Coles and Aldi, dual discount department stores operators Big W and Target, and a Birch Carroll and Coyle cinema complex.
“Queensland has been a clear standout in 2021, with $3.7 billion in retail deals transacted year to date, with significant confidence demonstrated in the Queensland retail market noting the limited COVID impacts,” said CBRE’s Simon Rooney, who managed the off-market transaction.
“Investor interest has been underpinned by robust retail expenditure and forecast population growth, coupled with the fact that shopping centres in Queensland have been significantly less impacted by COVID than other major eastern seaboard markets.”
YFG Shopping Centres controls over 20 shopping centres in south-east Queensland. In 2020 it completed the staged acquisition of Mt Ommaney Centre from Vicinity Centres and Nuveen Real Estate for $379.5 million.
Retail assets made a big comeback in the second of 2021. The AMP Capital Shopping Centre Fund, UniSuper, Cbus Property and AMP Capital consolidated their ownership in the Macquarie Centre and Pacific Fair two months after UniSuper and Cbus Property bought major stakes in the assets for $2.2 billion in the largest retail transaction in Australian history.
Around the same time, GPT sold Wollongong Central to Haben and its Hong Kong-based backer JY Group for $402 million, as well as its Casuarina Square in Darwin for $420 million, while Vicinity Centres traded malls on the Gold Coast, and welcomed Hong Kong’s Link REIT to joint ownership of iconic Sydney retail trio the Queen Victoria Building, The Strand Arcade and The Galeries.
