$280m price tag: Lidcombe, Leopold malls on block
A wholesale fund run by Vicinity Centres has put two major shopping centres on the block for more than $280 million as it winds back its funds management ambitions and focuses on its balance sheet assets.
The fund is selling the Lidcombe Centre, a subregional centre in Sydney’s west, with hopes of more than $150 million, and Gateway Plaza Leopold, a subregional centre on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, expected to sell for more than $130 million.
Vicinity’s wholesale shopping centre fund, whose management it picked up as part of the Novion merger, is selling the centres in NSW and Victoria as its investment term runs out.
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The fund was set up by Colonial First State Global Asset Management and seeded with $600m from eight local and offshore wholesale investors in 2013.
It targeted subregional and neighbourhood shopping centres worth between $25 million and $125 million.
Its portfolio also included Keilor Shopping Centre and Mildura Central, in Victoria, as well as Riverside Plaza in Queanbeyan and Bathurst City Centre in NSW, although some assets have since been sold.
The Lidcombe Centre is anchored by Kmart, Woolworths and Aldi and has 10 mini-majors and 59 specialties and kiosks.
The centre opened in 2005 and was last redeveloped in 2015 after a $60 million reconfiguration. It spans a gross lettable area of about 32,000sqm. The centre is on a 35,000sqm site opposite a Costco store and near Bunnings Auburn, allowing it to draw from an extended trade area.
Simon Rooney of JLL is handling the western Sydney centre.
Gateway Plaza Leopold dominates its area on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula after an $85 million redevelopment last year.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
