Shopping Centre

Retail investors have spent nearly $200 million buying up major shopping centres in the Geelong region in the past five months as the region rides a residential development boom.

The Glen shopping centre’s roof will be turned into a 4000sq m garden as part of a $450 million apartment development.

Listed retail landlord Vicinity Centres is set to sell up to $1 billion of smaller shopping centres as the group unveils a strategy of focusing on flagship destination assets.

Regional shopping centres offering premium services and local neighbourhood complexes that are very convenient are dominating asset trading this year.

Newcomb’s Bellarine Village shopping centre has sold for nearly $37 million in a deal with a Melbourne-based private investor.

Private equity and property giant Blackstone is poised to double its money on an investment in Sydney’s Top Ryde City Shopping Centre by putting the site on the block for $700 million, just over five years after taking over the asset.

Listed groups Charter Hall Retail REIT and Vicinity Centres has sold almost $100 million worth of smaller shopping centres as they switch focus to higher value ­assets.

A gigantic $US4 billion retail and entertainment complex won government approval after years of debate, greenlighting what promises to be the largest mall in North America, just a few kilometres from Florida’s environmentally sensitive Everglades.

A prime retail, dining and lifestyle hub on the Surfers Paradise waterfront is on the market.