Mintus snaps up another shopping centre
Mintus has purchased Bathurst Chase from Quanta Investment Funds.
The Parramatta based buyer is paying $17.5 million – reflecting a 7.36 per cent net passing yield – for the 7130 square metre complex facing the William Street retail strip, a holding from the Great Western Highway.
The Brisbane based seller outlaid $15.5m in mid-2015.
It was represented for the sale by CBRE’s James Douglas, Joe Tynan and Michael Hedger with Stonebridge’s Alex James-Elliott, Justin Dowers and Philip Gartland; their expressions of interest campaign attracted 16 offers.
The deal comes a week since Mintus paid Woolworths a price reflecting a 5.37pc fully let yield for the three year old Cranbourne West Shopping Centre, in Melbourne’s south east.
Late last year meanwhile, the group snapped up Brisbane’s Beenleigh Marketplace from Dexus.
Mintus has also been an active office investor, since mid-2021 snapping up assets and development sites in Parramatta and Gladesville – the latter again from Dexus.
Bathurst is about 200 kilometres west of Sydney.
Elsewhere in the area, two years ago, Argus Property Partners paid HMC Capital $16.95m for a bulky goods investment on 5.2 hectares in Kelso.
Bathurst Chase
On 1.177 hectares at 39 William Street, in the centre of town, Bathurst Chase is anchored to Coles.
Liquorland occupies a mini-major.
The majority of the specialty tenants are non-discretionary retailers.
All rental agreements are subject to annual or fixed CPI-linked reviews.
Coles, which is on a lease with two 10 year options, also contributes a percentage rent (story continues below).
“The sale of this asset at $17.5m is a great outcome for our investors, having achieved a significant premium over our acquisition price of $15.5m,” Quanta chief executive officer, Stacey Jones, said.
“Our disposal of the asset is in line with our trust strategy to recycle capital for value creation initiatives elsewhere in the portfolio and to reduce portfolio debt exposure,” she added.
The asset’s established customer base and extensive trade area of 43,850 residents is forecast to grow by 1.3pc p.a. (almost double the NSW non-metro average) to reach 56,170 by 2041, according to the group.
“The trade area comprises an affluent population, with average per capita and household incomes 4pc and 6pc respectively above the non-metro NSW benchmarks,” it said.
“This drives significant retail spending of $671.8m, with forecast growth of 3.7pc p.a. to reach $1.34 billion by 2041, which will be a key driver of the turnover performance for the Coles supermarket and Liquorland,” it added
“The wider Bathurst region generated $2.6b in regional product in FY22 across a vast industry profile, primarily focused on health care/medical, education, agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism.
“Bathurst also features the world-renowned Mt Panorama Racing Circuit, which hosts several international events annually culminating in the iconic Bathurst 1000 – a four day motorsport festival, had almost 200,000 people in attendance in 2022 and is estimated to add $17m to the local economy each year”.
Valuable improvements
The single level Bathurst Chase is exposed to the city’s William St retail precinct, one holding from the Great Western Highway.
“The transaction demonstrates the resilient nature and continued demand for retail assets with a focus on non-discretionary spending.” Mr Douglas said.
“At Bathurst Chase, there is also an immediate opportunity for the incoming owner to actively lease and manage the centre to enhance the asset’s income profile,” he added.
According to Mr James-Elliott, the property’s improvements are of particular value, given high construction costs.
“In the current changing market, the ability to secure a neighbourhood shopping centre with tangible competitive advantages over its competition, and genuine value add opportunities proved to be highly attractive,” he said.
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