Centuria spends $26.25m on ex-Bunnings
Centuria Industrial REIT (CIP) is the latest group to pick up an ex-Bunnings outlet.
The manager is spending $26.25 million for 8 Lexington Drive, Bella Vista, which has recently been extended and repurposed as a 7678 square metre warehouse and 591 sqm office.
On 1.7 hectares, it forms part of the Norwest Business Park, opposite Woolworths’ national headquarters.
In recent years, land which formed the Bunnings car park has made way for a service station and McDonald’s – the latter which Colliers sold last year.
Last month, Centuria spent $37.25m on two industrial investments – both in Melbourne’s Derrimut.
In a separate spree it outlaid $62.5m on three warehouses – two at Brisbane and one in Adelaide.
Three months ago the manager paid $171.1m for three cold storage distribution centres on Australia’s east coast.
Building covers under half the site: manager
CIP will hold the Bella Vista asset in its Property Funds No 2 trust.
Fund manager Jesse Curtis said the structure covers less than half the site, offering the chance to add more commercial product.
It also has three street frontages and is elevated (story continues below).
“Being a high-profile location, in a true infill area, the asset will appeal to a broad range of potential users,” the executive said, providing “excellent connectivity to the M2 and M7 motorways, enabling access to 1.2 million households within a 60 minute drive and 358,000 households within a 30 minute drive”.
The acquisition increases CIP’s NSW weighting to 25pc – comprising 12 assets valued at a total of $757.2m.
Settlement is due next month.
Another ex-Bunnings outlet sold
Developers have been repurposing ex-Bunnings outlets as warehouse investments for years.
In recent months, a string of empty or soon-to-vacated hardware stores have sold to institutional buyers looking to the same.
In December, Charter Hall paid $70m for an ex-store in Alexandra, with intentions to repurpose the 1.9ha site as a distribution centre investment.
EG Funds spent $48.75m on a former Bunnings in Rockdale, again in Sydney – with plans to repurpose the asset if Bunnings doesn’t renew its lease in 2023.
Last month in Palmerston, 20 kilometres east of Darwin, another property once occupied by the retailer at 2 Palmerston Circuit sold for $7.5m to a local who is planning to split it into smaller industrial tenancies.
