Kaufland recoups $29.7m selling two Victorian sites to Aventus, Woolworths
Kaufland has found buyers for nine Australian properties – today revealing the ASX-listed buyers for two of them.
Its portfolio – an unbuilt distribution centre and parcels earmarked for supermarkets – was estimated to be worth $500 million.
The Germany based retailer spent more than two years acquiring properties and creating a development pipeline ahead of an Australian launch, which it abandoned five months ago before ever opening a store.
In February it appointed Colliers International’s John Marasco, Alysia Reilly, James Wilson and Tim McIntosh to sell down its local real estate – starting with assets in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.
A second tranche of properties is expected to be listed for sale later this year.
Aventus, Woolworths revealed as buyers of first Kaufland blocks
In the biggest of the two deals revealed today, Woolworths is paying $18.2m for a 3.06 hectare site in Melbourne’s south east suburb of Dandenong.
At the north east corner of Princes Highway and Gladstone Street, the property was previously a Bunnings outlet.
It is described as one of the last major infill opportunities in the suburb, a major activity centre for decades marketed “Melbourne’s second city”.
Kaufland acquired the Dandenong holding from the retailers’ BWT Trust, paying $16.2m in 2017, levelling the main structure shortly after.
Meanwhile, in Epping, 20 kilometres north of Melbourne, another ASX-listed group, Aventus, is paying $11.5m for a 3.15ha parcel.
This plot, 592-694 High St, is between two properties the group already owns and trades as Epping Homemaker Centre.
It is also opposite Epping Plaza.
More than 37,000 cars pass the site a day, the marketing agents said.
Like Dandenong, the Epping holding previously accommodated a Bunnings warehouse, which Kaufland demolished.
The vendor, owned by the Schwarz family’s Schwarz Group, the world’s fourth biggest retailer worth a speculated $170b, paid BWT Trust $16.2m for 592-694 High St last year.
