Centro to Sell Two More Victorian Shopping Centres
THE FIRST listed property trust casualty of the global financial crisis – Centro Properties Group – has put two more Victorian shopping centres on the market.
The Centro Rosebud Shopping Centre about 60 kilometres south of Melbourne, is expected to sell for about $12 million reflecting a yield of about 8 per cent based on the centre’s annual income of $973,000. Centro, through one of its syndicates, paid $9.3 million for the shopping centre in early 2002.
A second Centro shopping centre, in the north-western suburb of Meadow Heights is expected to sell for about $12.5 million, reflecting a similar 8 per cent yield.
Both shopping centres are being offloaded by the Centro MFS 18 syndicate, which have owned the assets since early 2002.
CB Richard Ellis agents Mark Wizel and Steve Lerche are marketing Centro Rosebud, while Colliers International’s Nathan Clark is marketing Centro Meadow Heights.
Late last year, the beleaguered fund manager sold its Centro Hamilton Shopping Centre to private investors the Liuzzi Property Group for $17.25 million. In February, it sold the Centro Ringwood Shopping Centre for $39 million.
A $35 million deal to sell the Warringal Shopping Centre, in the north-eastern suburb of Heidelberg, is believed to be in advanced negotiations, but this could not be confirmed with agent Jones Lang LaSalle.
Share prices for Centro funds plummeted in December 2007, when the group announced it would struggle to refinance $1.3 billion in maturing debt, which arose from the group’s exposure to the US subprime mortgage market.
