Simon Rooney, JLL’s head of retail investments,Australasia, has been appointed by Vicinity Centres and Challenger to sell a 100 per cent freehold interest in two dominant shopping centre assets – Corio Central in Geelong and Lennox Village in Sydney. Corio Central is a high-yielding sub-regional shopping centre anchored by a double supermarket offering of Woolworths and Coles plus a Kmart DDS all on long-term leases until at least 2025. The centre is eight kilometres north of the Geelong CBD
CBD. It also features six mini-majors, 82 specialties and kiosks, 16 offices, one pad site and parking for 1530 vehicles.
It also offers strategic repositioning and remixing opportunities, with a secure cash flow and historically high occupancy and is being sold on behalf of Vicinity Centres.
Lennox Village is a dominant Sydney metropolitan neighbourhood shopping centre and community hub in Emu Plains, approximately 50km west of the Sydney CBD. It has outstanding frontage to the Great Western Highway, parking for more than 400 vehicles and excellent exposure to a high level of passing traffic. It features a recently refurbished, highly productive Woolworths supermarket and an Aldi with immediate expansion opportunity (subject to Aldi board approval), together with a Dan Murphy’s, 30 specialties and kiosks, one office and five pad sites.
It is being offered for sale on behalf of Vicinity Centres and Challenger, which both own a 50 per cent stake.
Rooney said, “Major convenience-based shopping centres continue to generate strong interest from investors, given their exposure to more resilient retail categories such as grocery, F&B and retail services. Buyers see relative value in retail assets given the widening spread to other asset classes and attractive income returns available for quality neighbourhood and sub-regional centres. Investors are making tactical retail acquisitions to take advantage of the pricing disparity between sectors and individual assets.”
