This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
CENTURIA Capital acquired the Logan Super Centre, south of Brisbane, for $115 million in the biggest large format retail (LFR) transaction in three years, and will house the asset in a new closed-ended funded.
Centuria said the centre is being acquired at a circa 22% discount to replacement cost and provides future development optionality with the potential to create a further 3,000 sqm of retail space.
The centre is located 25 kilometres south of Brisbane’s CBD and accommodates Freedom, Fantastic Furniture, Spotlight and Anaconda, 26 retailers and more than 600 on-grade car parks.
The property will deliver a 3.4-year weighted average lease expiry by income and 100% occupancy, with 93% of its tenant mix represented by ASX-listed or national retailers.
It will be held in the single-asset Centuria Logan Super Centre Fund.
“Currently, the domestic LFR sector is benefiting from strong macroeconomic tailwinds, underpinned by a national increase across population, employment and consumer spending,” said Jason Huljich, Centuria joint CEO.
“Notably, overseas migration has driven demand for ‘durable goods’ expenditure associated with establishing new households. This demand, coupled with limited new LFR supply resultant of construction constraints, is anticipated to support strong occupancy rates in the near- to medium-term.
The fund will provide an initial five-year term and is expected to be open to retail and wholesale investors. It is targeting a forecast average annual distribution of 8.00%, paid monthly. The Fund has a targeted equity raise of circa $71 million with investments starting from $50,000.
Centuria has one of the largest large format retail portfolios in Australasia with 31 centres across the region.
Commercial real estate investor Whitmore Property launched a new large format retail fund in September that is targeting $150 million in assets tenanted by household brands including Supercheap Auto, The Good Guys and Subway.
The Logan sale was handled by CBRE’s Simon Rooney, who said the transaction is the largest LFR sale nationally since late 2022, with just six centres above $50 million sold across Australia in 2024.
This transaction eclipses other key large format retail deals in FY25, including US giant Barings acquiring Joondalup Square in Perth for $74 million, as exclusively reported by Australian Property Journal, while HomeCo Daily Needs REIT offloaded HomeCo Warners Bay in NSW, home to the Good Guys, Officeworks, Supercheap Auto and Pillow Talk, for $56.5 million, following on from its $54 million divestment of HomeCo Ballarat in Victoria.
“Limited development supply and likely interest rate reductions in 2025, coupled with robust population growth, is expected to underpin ongoing investor interest in the LFR asset class, which has been traditionally tightly held and rarely traded,” said Rooney.
