Charter Hall Retail REIT buys Rockdale Plaza for $142 million
Charter Hall Retail REIT is paying $142 million for a major and high-profile shopping centre in Sydney’s south.
Rockdale Plaza on the Princes Highway spreads across a 4.78 hectare site and includes 907 car parks and a 21,334 sqm centre anchored by Big W and supermarkets Aldi and Woolworths.
It also includes 46 specialty stores.
Based on the annual rent, the deal is being struck on a yield of 6.25 per cent.
The centre is 99.8 per cent occupied.
Charter Hall is now seeking $150 million from investors: UBS is offering a share with a fixed price of $4.51 which realcommercial.com.au said in this item is a 3 per cent discount to the CHRT stock’s closing price last Friday.
Charter Hall Retail chief Greg Chubb described Rockdale Plaza as “a high performing centre”.
“Underpinned by supermarkets and non-discretionary food and service-based uses, the acquisition aligns with the REIT’s investment strategy and enhances portfolio metrics to ensure we continue to deliver a long-term sustainable growth in earnings for investors,” Mr Chubb said.
JLL’s Simon Rooney said Rockdale Plaza was defying the recent retail market gloom: its Moving Annual Turnover recently lifted 5 percent to $180.8 million, and its operating earnings growth, was 2 per cent.
“Sub-regional shopping centres in the Sydney metropolitan area are tightly held with typically only one opportunity being made available per year,” Mr Rooney is reported as saying in this item on website shoppingcentrenews.com.au. “Metropolitan-located retail assets are highly sought after given their exposure to strong population growth and rising urban density, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne”.
Rockdale Plaza, on the Princes Highway, about 13 kilometres from the Sydney CBD, was offloaded by City Freeholds.
Last month Charter Hall paid $75.5 million for 13 childcare centres on Australia’s east coast.
In December the diversified property giant paid $74 million for the Campbellfield Plaza in Melbourne’s north – a site it said had development potential. A month earlier it paid Village Roadshow $12.5 million for the Coburg Drive-Inn, a long term residential redevelopment play.
In November, it paid $140 million for an office at 555 Collins Street, adjoining another commercial property it owns, 55 King Street – and creating a 4620 sqm super-site at a south-west corner of the Melbourne CBD.
Charter Hall also recently paid $118.5 million for two government-leased dog training facilities, in Melbourne’s Bulla, and Sydney’s Banksmeadow.
Elsewhere in Sydney, Charter Hall paid $55 million for a commercial site occupied by the National Archives of Australia in Villawood.
Charter Hall has also sold several smaller retail assets across the country including in Queensland’s Commera, on the Gold Coast, and in Canberra’s Young.
