This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
A LARGE retail centre in Epping, Victoria known as ‘The Hub’ has sold for $70,250,000.
The Epping Hub is located 22km north of Melbourne’s CBD. The sale was managed by JLL’s senior director of retail investments Stuart Taylor and director of retail investments Tom Noonan.
It has been bought by Forza Capital and Enclave Living/Jayland. They take over from HomeCo Daily Needs REIT.
The land holding of 9,124 hectares features a 7,484 hectare Large Format Retail asset.
The retail centre holds 30 separate tenancies, a GLA of 22,038 sqm and a weighted average lease expiry of 1.7 years which was purchased by Forza Capital. Jayland have also acquired a 1.6 hectare vacant parcel of land ripe for immediate development.
Some of the tenancies within the centre include Officeworks, Supercheap Auto, Cashconverters, Centrelink, Chemist Warehouse and Harvey Norman.
Director of Forza Capital Ashley Wain explains what drew the company to chase this sale.
“The Epping property was identified as a strategic landholding, with low site coverage and planning controls that supports more intensive mixed-use development,” Wain said.
“Forza Capital raised $48 million in equity from its client base of high net worth investors and intends to embark on a strategic overhaul of the asset including the construction of additional floor space and improvements to the tenancy mix” he added.
Stuart Taylor says the value of these assets continue to rise due to demand.
“The sale of Epping Hub confirms the ability to achieve strong pricing outcomes for well-located retail assets, especially those in metropolitan locations, which are considered to be ‘land-rich,’” he said.
“The sale continues the theme of non-traditional retail investors entering the sector, attracted to the ability to drive value further via development strategies and introduction of alternative uses.”
