Funds management group Ray White Invest and private property developer Blair Group have acquired the Currambine Marketplace from Woolworths Ltd for more than $50 million with plans to expand the property.
Funds management group Ray White Invest and private property developer Blair Group have acquired the Currambine Marketplace from Woolworths Ltd for more than $50 million with plans to expand the property.
Located 30 kilometres north of the Perth CBD on 7.5 hectares of land, the property comprises a single level neighbourhood shopping centre anchored by a Woolworths supermarket, together with Woolworths petrol, 30 shops and a 6-plex cinema.
The joint venture will collaborate with Woolworths to rework elements of the existing centre and develop the surplus 2.5 hectares of development land to substantially improve and create a fully integrated retail offer.
Woolworths owned liquor outlet chain Dan Murphy's has committed to the new development, with a 1,400 square metre tenancy to be constructed as part of a 10,000sqm expansion.
On completion of the first stage of the development works, the property will have approximately 20,000sqm of retail space with an end value of circa $100 million.
Woolworths tenancies will comprise approximately 30 per cent of net income on completion.
The acquisition equates to a net yield of approximately 6.5 per cent pa on the shopping centre component and $9 million for the surplus land.
White Invest chief executive Dan White said the Currambine acquisition represented a strong outcome for Ray White Invest and its investor partners.
"Our wholesale fundraising program undertaken over recent weeks was closed over-subscribed. Our investor partners recognise the strong fundamentals of the property, the unusual combination of covenant strength and development potential."
"What has been gratifying about this purchase has been the preparedness of professional investors to coolly evaluate this retail opportunity on its merits and not be sideswiped by the recent hysteria created by Centro's problems. We always maintained a deep-belief in the quality of this proposal right from the time, last November, when we conditionally acquired this property," said Mr White.
He said the deal also represented a continuation of the Group's long term relationship with Blair Group.
Blair Group managing director Jason Blair said it had developed a strong relationship with Woolworths by approaching development from a long-term retailing perspective.
Ray White Invest partners with selected privately owned property developers to undertake projects (typically up to $150 million) in the commercial, industrial, retail, leisure, retirement, infrastructure and residential property sectors.
The group has relationships with more than 60 developers and over the past seven years has undertaken more than 200 investments equating to over $2.2 bn in property value on completion.
