THE number of Perth shopping centres changing hands this year has grown to six, with the conditional sale of Phoenix Shopping Centre for about $80 million; but there has been no progress on Westfield Innaloo, which is likely to be the largest sale of the year.
Phoenix has been sold by Volley Investments, representing a syndicate of local investors, to an overseas buyer.
The parties are believed to have exchanged contracts this week, but the sale is conditional on the standard due diligence process and other terms.
Located in Spearwood, Phoenix is anchored by Big W, Coles and Woolworths, and has 54 specialty stores. It has a gross lettable area of 20,505 square metres.
Colliers director retail investment services Mark Werrett, who handled the sale, said Phoenix was one of the last sub-regional shopping centres in Perth owned by private investors.
Mr Werrett said institutional investors, along with some offshore buyers, had acquired most of the sub-regional centres.
The Phoenix transaction followed the sale of Centro’s Altone Park shopping centre, which was due to go unconditional this week upon completion of due diligence.
The 8,024sqm property, in Beechboro, was sold to a Singapore investor for about $16 million.
Mr Werrett, who also handled the Altone Park sale, said the retail property sector in WA had been strong over the past six months.
He believes the start of seven-day trading has bolstered the sector.
Altone Park is one of many shopping centres to be sold by the cash-strapped Centro property group, which has been through a major restructuring.
Centro’s other sales this year include a 50 per cent interest in three of its largest shopping centres, including Galleria in Morley.
Perth-based investment company Perron Group paid $690.4 million for its interest in the three centres.
Other Perth sales this year include Wanneroo Central, which sold to the Charter Hall Retail Partnership for $70 million.
This was one of three sales, along with Stirling Central and Carramar Village, handled by CBRE.
All of the transactions completed to date are likely to be trumped by the sale of Westfield Innaloo, which CBRE has been marketing since April.
The sales campaign was confirmed last week by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which said its inquiry into Westfield’s proposed acquisition of the nearby Karrinyup shopping centre was on hold pending the Innaloo sales process.
Westfield is believed to looking to sell Innaloo (Perth’s ninth largest centre) to overcome any market dominance concerns the ACCC may have about the Karrinyup deal.
Westfield owns 33 per cent of Karrinyup and wants to buy out its co-owner, UniSuper. The two parties are currently in dispute, with the case to go before the High Court later this year.
