This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
STOCKLAND has decided to sell its $146 million The Pines shopping centre at Doncaster East in Melbourne's north-east.
Stockland has appointed Colliers International’s national director of retail investment services Lachlan MacGillivray to sell the sub regional shopping centre.
The sale is part of Stockland’s capital recycling strategy. In FY2012 the group achieved total asset sales of $964 million, and so far into FY2013, the group has sold $247 million worth of properties, most recently offloading an office building at 45 St Georges Terrace Perth to Credit Suisse.
MacGillivray said the property represents a rare opportunity to acquire a premium sub regional shopping centre located in one of Melbourne’s affluent suburbs.
Located at 181 Reynolds Rd Doncaster East, approximately 24km north-east of Melbourne’s CBD, The Pines is a 7.75 ha modern, single level shopping centre anchored by three supermarkets – Woolworths, Coles Aldi and Target discount department store.
The anchor tenants are complemented by The Reject Shop and 81 additional specialty stores, together with 19 kiosks. The Pines commenced trading in 1986 and was significantly extended in 2004 to incorporate Coles and Aldi.
MacGillivray said The Pines – which has a current book value of $146.3 million – has already attracted strong interest from domestic and offshore institutional and wholesale investors, as well as high net worth investors.
This is the first major retail investment offering in Melbourne since Centro put a 50% stake in The Glen on the market as part of a three properties portfolio, which included a half interest in Colonnades in Adelaide and Galleria in Perth. The portfolio was snapped up by Perron Group for $690.4 million in June this year.
Prior to that, the only other comparable transaction was Stockland’s purchase of the Point Cook Town Centre in Melbourne’s west from Walker Corporation for $176 million in the middle of last year.
“There is currently very strong demand for high quality Australian sub regional shopping centres with an estimated $1.5 billion of capital currently targeting this market, predominantly from institutional investors and private investors.
“The last six months has seen an increase in the amount of offshore capital looking to team up with local active management specifically focused on the sub-regional asset class. This is reflecting a greater transactional activity in the asset class with sales of sub regional assets tripling over the last 12 months,” MacGillivray said.
Property Review
