This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
AS the shopping centre market heats up, JY Group is expanding its Australian shopping centre portfolio, adding a 50% interest in Sydney’s Warriewood Square for $135.5 million.
Hot on the heels of its acquisition of Westfield Whitford City last month, JY has acquired Warriewood Square from ISPT.
The centre is a strong performing sub-regional mall located at 12 Jacksons Road, around 29km north-east of the CBD, and comprises a Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and Kmart, plus four mini majors including Rebel, Cotton On Mega and JB Hi-Fi and 97 specialty stores and kiosks.
Co-owned and managed by Vicinity Centres, the asset’s leasing major tenant WALE by income sits at 11.1 years with combined annual sales in excess of $135 million.
Simon Rooney, head of retail capital markets, Pacific at CBRE, was exclusively appointed to manage the on-market sale process on behalf of ISPT.
The acquisition brings the value of the group’s shopping centre assets to more than $2.8 billion, joining the acquisition of Melbourne’s Roxburgh Village which settled earlier this year and the recent acquisition of a 50% stake in Perth’s Westfield Whitford City.
The offering saw competitive levels of interest, largely from private capital, thanks to its prime location, 2016 investment works of $85 million and strong performance from the major tenants.
With the centre benefiting as the dominant retail destination in the established and affluent trade area of 177,918 residents, where primary trade area retail spending per capita sits 33% above the Greater Sydney average.
“This strong transaction result reinforces increasing investor demand and liquidity for well-located, high quality metropolitan sub-regional assets demonstrating outstanding trading performance, underpinned by exceptional investment fundamentals and a secure tenancy profile such as that offered at Warriewood Square,” said Rooney.
“The Warriewood transaction completes approximately $1.3 billion in partial 50% stakes changing hands since June 2024, including Westfield West Lakes – SA ($174.75m – 50%), Westfield Tea Tree – SA ($308m – 50%), Claremont Quarter ($207m – 50%) – WA, Lakeside Joondalup – WA ($420m – 50%) and Westfield Whitford City – WA ($195m – 50%).”
With the $195 million acquisition of the half-stake in Westfield Whitford City also a play by JY Group, snapping up the asset from Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC.
The acquisition also comes just days after US investor Hines boosted its own Australian investment activity, snapping up a share of Westpoint Shopping Centre in a $900 million deal that marks the nation’s largest-ever single-asset retail transaction.
The latest JLL research reported retail transactions have risen to $4.3 billion, up 12% from the $3.9 billion the first three quarters of 2023.
