Half-billion-dollar deal for half share in top Adelaide shopping centre
A stake in Adelaide’s largest suburban shopping centre has sold for hundreds of millions of dollars, the agents saying the deal highlights SA’s “favourable property tax regime”.
A 50 per cent stake in Westfield Marion was this week sold for $670 million to Australian commercial real estate private equity firm JY Group in a deal said to be one of the “largest retail property transactions in recent years”.
Agents CBRE and JLL said the sale signalled a “powerful vote of confidence” in the Australian retail investment sector, with the stake sold by Singapore-based investment group Cuscaden Peak.
CBRE head of Pacific retail capital markets Simon Rooney said the sale process had “significant engagement” and that assets like Westfield Marion remained “highly sought-after”.
Westfield Marion sits on a 22.8-hectare site in the southern suburb of Oaklands Park. It is anchored by David Jones, Myer, Woolworths and Coles, and generates sales of more than $1 billion each year.
CBRE said it had a productivity rate of $14,000 per square metre – ranking it 15th in the nation. It also has one of the largest cinema complexes in the southern hemisphere, with 26 screens.
Each year, more than 12.5 million people shop at Westfield Marion.
The deal takes JY’s total assets under management to $4.9 billion. The private equity firm also owns a 50 per cent stake in Bankstown Central and a half stake in Westfield Whitford City in Western Australia.
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JLL retail investments executive director Nick Willis said shopping centres like Westfield Marion were “Australia’s most exclusive real estate asset classes, with only 20 centres nationwide controlled by 12 owner managers”.
“The opportunity to acquire an ownership stake in the super-regional sub-sector is rarely afforded to the public market,” he said.
“These assets are tightly guarded – they exhibit fortress-like fundamentals that are virtually impossible to replicate.
“The sale of Westfield Marion presented a rare opportunity to enter this sub-sector and secure a stake in one of Australia’s premier performing shopping centres.”
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