Bellarine Village rides retail wave to $37m sale
Newcomb’s Bellarine Village shopping centre has sold for nearly $37 million in a deal with a Melbourne-based private investor.
The shopping centre, which derives about 80% of its rental income from national tenants, is the second major neighbourhood shopping centre to sell in the Geelong region this year.
CBRE national director investments Mark Wizel, who brokered the deal with Justin Dowers and Joseph Du Rieu, said demand for shopping centres, particularly well positioned centres with development and rental growth upside had seen no decline despite talk of an investment hiatus and ever tightening yields.
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“Retail is, as ever, the darling of the investment market,” Wizel says.
“If anything there has been a new intensity in interest as investors focus not simply on secure lease covenants and rental returns but on genuine upside provided by prime, city centre, sites, which offer exceptional future development potential.
Newcomb’s Bellarine Village shopping centre has sold.
“Retail has historically been regarded as the safe, defensive, investment with significant gross lettable area leased to non-discretionary spend tenants, and that is absolutely the case, but the potential to add a mixed-use development in the centre of town down the track adds another very attractive string to their bow.”
The 10,443sqm neighbourhood centre is anchored by Woolworths and Dan Murphy’s and includes another 16 specialty retailers including The Reject Shop, Woolworths Petrol Plus and Hungry Jack’s, returning an estimated $2.3 million in rent a year.
The 2.3ha site has four street frontages, four access points and provides parking for 315 cars.
Conditions were ripe for the Resofsky family, which bought the centre in 2009, to shop for buyers for their retail assets, Wizel says.
Bellarine Village Shopping Centre at Newcomb. Picture: Mark Wilson.
The sale comes as Colliers International is marketing Leopold’s Gateway Plaza shopping centre under the management of Vicinity Centres.
Bellarine Village has a 25-year lease to Woolworths, 15-year leases to Dan Murphy’s and Hungry Jack’s and five-year leases to The Reject Shop and Woolworths Petrol, returning about $2.3 million year. Other long-term tenants include Nardi’s Cellarbrations, Peak Pharmacy and Salon Rouge.
