Care Grants for local clubs Stockland has announced the recipients of its 2020 Care Grants, awarding $1000 grants to 266 local groups, clubs and programs across Australia that support health, wellbeing, community connection, education or local environmental initiatives. The program, now in its seventh year, has distributed over $1.7 million in funding to more than 1500 local community groups nationally. The wide-ranging group of winners includes a Red Cross branch that gives out trauma teddies,
ddies, a Probus retirees club, a church, a yacht club, and various arts and crafts centres.
Amy Hogan, Stockland’s national manager of group sustainability, told Shopping Centre News that the company “wholeheartedly recognises the contribution that these groups make to their community every single day”.
Earlier this year, Stockland also pledged a donation of $500,000 to organisations, including the Foundation for Regional and Rural Renewal and other organisations supporting the relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts of the Australian bushfires.
Stockland Care Grants is an annual program run throughout communities located near a Stockland retail, residential or retirement living community.
QICGRE set for zero emissions
QIC Global Real Estate (QICGRE) has committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions for its core Australian retail assets by 2028, making it the first Australian retail portfolio to sign the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment.
QIC Global Real Estate MD Michael O’Brien told Shopping Centre News that the target was “ambitious but achievable”.
The plan will deliver a range of carbon-reducing initiatives for assets in QICGRE’s two largest retail funds, QIC Property Fund and QIC Shopping Centre Fund. It involves a mixture of approaches, from rooftop solar to greater energy-saving efficiencies and seeking out investments in emerging green technology.
O’Brien said QICGRE realises that strong environmental initiatives are important to investors, retail partners and the community in which the company operates.
“Our proactive and data-driven approach to achieving net zero carbon emissions will implement real changes to improve the environmental performance of our assets, to ensure they remain valuable and relevant in an increasingly sustainability-focused future,” he said.
Woolworths sells centre for $35m
Colliers International has sold Woolworths’ Spring Farm Shopping Centre in Sydney’s southwest to Primewest for $34.75 million.
The sale, which represents a fully leased yield of 5.77 per cent, is the first such major transaction in NSW since the pandemic began.
The 4813sqm centre is anchored by a full-line Woolworths supermarket and BWS, with nine speciality stores and one kiosk; it also includes a medical centre and a pharmacy.
“Investor appetite continues to focus on non-discretionary retail investment opportunities, anchored by major supermarket operators and ASX-listed covenants,” James Wilson, the national director of retail investment services at Colliers International, told Shopping Centre News.
Alex James-Elliott, an executive with retail investment services, added that the growing interest was being driven by “strong growth in the supermarket sector”.