Leichhardt’s Norton Plaza joins shopping centre sales
The pile of shopping centres hitting the market is rising with the GPT Group joining Vicinity Centres and Challenger in putting an asset to market this week, with a property in Sydney’s Leichhardt on the block for about $150 million.
The unlisted GPT Wholesale Shopping Centre Fund says it will sell Norton Plaza, including the management rights of the landmark neighbourhood shopping centre.
Norton Plaza is a dominant convenience, food-based 11,800sqm complex with a Coles supermarket and 50 retailers.
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GPT has already undertaken repositioning works of the basement level in mid-2018, introducing a large-format Harris Farm Market.
GWSCF fund manager Anthony McNulty says the planned sale of Norton Plaza is in keeping with a strategy to further increase the fund’s exposure towards dominant regional and super-regional assets.
Colliers International’s Lachlan MacGillivray and CBRE’s Nick Willis are handling the sale.
GPT last year touted a quarter interest in the $2.7 billion Highpoint Shopping Centre in Melbourne for a swap among other landlords.
Chief executive Bob Johnston this week confirmed that GPT had explored this idea, but said the group was happy with the asset and would only undertake such a move to diversify its portfolio if it could gain exposure to a similarly high-quality asset.
Separately, the listed Vicinity Centres and financial services group Challenger are moving to sell off Corio Central in Geelong and Lennox Village in Sydney via real estate agent Simon Rooney of JLL.
The industry is dealing with about $10 billion worth of centres hitting the market with Stockland, Blackstone and the Dexus funds units also among the vendors.
This article originally appeared on www.theaustralian.com.au/property.
