Troubled shopping complex Brandon Park Shopping Centre has been sold to Newmark Capital, a syndicate fund run by former Hawthorn AFL player Chris Langford, for $135 million.
Vicinity Centres will receive $67.5 million for the sale, along with co-owner TestraSuper.
Simon Rooney, JLL’s head of Retail Investments – Australasia, who handled the transaction which was negotiated for a sale of 100 per cent interest, said Victorian retail assets are tightly held and are generally highly sought after given their relative scarcity, especially in Metro locations. Brandon Park is one of only four sub-regional centre transactions within the Melbourne metro area since 2015.
“Unlisted funds continue to be drawn to the sub-regional sector given the attractive yields available relative to premium core assets,” Rooney said. “Victoria is experiencing the strongest rate of population growth on record, and investors are attracted to the positive growth drivers underpinning the Melbourne retail market.”
According to Rooney, transactions of sub-regional centres dropped to $1.1 billion in 2017, less than half the $2.4 billion per annum which sold between 2013 and 2016 – given the volume and scale of portfolio sales in prior years.
The sale of Brandon Park is the first sub-regional sale in metro-Melbourne since Casey Central in December 2016 for approximately $221.0 million and follows the recent sale of Toormina Gardens by Vicinity Centres (50 per cent) and Challenger (50 per cent) to Fort Street Real Estate Capital Fund III for $83.3m.
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