One of Australia’s largest homemaker centres sold for $282 million
One of Australia’s biggest homemaker centres has changed hands for a mega $282 million, marking the second largest sale on record for the large format retail sector.
Commercial property investment group AsheMorgan sold the Crossroads Homemaker Centre for double the $140 million it paid three-and-a-half years ago for the 52,000sqm homemaker hub and 14.3ha Sydney site.
US-based real estate investment manager LaSalle Investment Management bought Crossroads Casula after an international expressions of interest campaign managed by JLL and Stonebridge Property Group.
The agents said Crossroads attracted strong national and international investor interest.
The LFR hub is fully leased to 38 tenants including national brands Bunnings, Freedom, Officeworks, Fantastic Furniture, Planet Fitness and Nick Scali.
Bunnings is one of the national tenants at the Crossroads Centre. Picture: realcommercial.com.au/leased
The centre, built in 2000, has a gross lettable area of 52,138sqm and is positioned on a 143,520sqm site over four separate titles.
The deal was brokered by JLL’s Nick Willis and Sam Hatcher with Stonebridge’s Philip Gartland, Carl Molony, Lincoln Blackledge and Jonathan Fox.
With large format retail performing strongly during the pandemic and record demand for industrial and logistics space, the homemaker centre itself and the size of the landholding had been tipped to attract strong interest.
“Crossroad’s brilliant strategic position, in the strong south-western growth corridor and at the intersection of the M7, M5 and Hume Highway, means there is significant further rental growth and asset intensification to unlock,” Mr Gartland said this week.
The Crossroads Centre in Casula is located in Sydney’s south-west growth corridor. Picture: Supplied by JLL
The sale of Crossroads to LaSalle was flagged earlier this month before being formally announced this week.
It follows the $265 million sale of Homeworld Helensvale in a deal brokered by Colliers and Stonebridge that was announced in August. Stonebridge said the deals demonstrated the significant weight of capital for major LFR assets.
The sale of the Helensvale large format and daily needs centre, which spans more than 36,000sqm on a 20.3ha site in the Gold Coast’s northern suburbs, represented the largest Queensland LFR transaction on record.
A high-net-worth private investor bought Homeworld Helensvale, which sits on a 20.3ha site in the Gold Coast’s northern suburbs. Picture: Supplied by Colliers
The $282 million sale price for Crossroads Casula represented a 4.62% yield, Stonebridge and JLL said.
The deal is the second largest LFR transaction in Australia on record.
The largest homemaker transaction was Aventus Retail Property’s $436 million acquisition of two Sydney LFR centres in 2017. It acquired Home Hub Castle Hill for $336 million as well as Home Hub Marsden Park for $100 million.
