SCA continues big week with $33m Townsville buy

SCA Property Group has followed news of a 23% profit lift with the purchase of Townsville’s Annandale Central Shopping Centre.

On the same day it was revealed SCA had booked a $184.7 million net profit for 2016, the group acquired the North Queensland asset for $33.5 million.

The shopping centre, anchored by a Coles supermarket, features 6685sqm of lettable space and has 19 specialty shops, a discount variety store, a kiosk and four ATMs, as well as 352 car parking spaces.

Strong result: SCA rides retail boom to 23% profit lift

SCA’s portfolio is comprised mainly of properties offloaded by Woolworths. The company on Monday announced its current profit level is 22.7% higher than at the same time last year, driven by a stronger net operating income.

Savills national director of retail sales Peter Tyson negotiated Annandale Central deal, and says demand for neighbourhood shopping centres shows no sign up abating.

Investors are attracted to Townsville as the largest urban centre in North Queensland

Annandale Central is the latest in a string of Townsville neighbourhood centre sales negotiated by Savills, after the Bushland Beach Plaza, Woolworths-anchored centres Vincent Marketplace and Town Plaza and Coles-anchored Rising Sun Shopping Centre all transacting in the last year.

“Annandale Central is well located just off the Bruce Highway ring road in the master-planned residential suburb of Annandale, directly opposite the expanding Lavarack Army Barracks, and is underpinned by a strongly trading full-line Coles Supermarket,” Tyson says.

“Investors are attracted to Townsville as the largest urban centre in North Queensland and its broad-based economy with multiple drivers of employment and economic growth, including defence, health, education, mining, agriculture and tourism,.”

Annandale Central lies 7km south-west of the Townsville CBD.