Mirvac, Peet part with Queanbeyan retail site
The Stevens Group has bought a development site in a $1.7 billion housing estate being delivered by Mirvac and Peet at Googong, a suburb of Queanbeyan, just outside the Australian Capital Territory boundary, eight kilometres east of Parliament House.
The 1.184 hectare B2 Local Centre zoned parcel is setting the Erina based builder back $8.75 million.
A commercial project with a service station, fast food restaurant, childcare complex and large format retail is expected (artist’s impression, top).
Stevens would have been looking to replenish its pipeline after last February selling a then just-completed Dubbo Homemaker Centre to Melbourne based fund manager MPG for $13.3m, reflecting a 5.75 per cent yield.
Colliers’ James Wilson and Ben Wilkinson brokered that transaction.
Those agents with colleague Matthew Winter also sold the Queanbeyan block for Mirvac and Peet.
The deal comes about 18 months since Peet acquired a 15ha piece of the University of Canberra’s Belconnen campus with plans for a residential-based mixed use village with the potential for 2600 dwellings.
Amenity coming to Googong
With 450 metres of street frontage, the Stevens development will form part of the $82m-plus Googong Town Centre, set to contain a Coles, community centre, gym, library, medical centre and hospitality precinct with a pub (story continues below).
“Stevens Group’s experience in developing premium retail sites and its ability to partner with [Mirvac and Peet] whist delivering a community-based outcome, led to them securing the purchase,” Mr Wilson said.
“The impressive level of enquiry saw…10 offers received, reinforcing the market’s appetite for retail development sites of this nature,” according to the agent.
Mr Wilson added the area’s catchment is set to grow 6.1 per cent per annum until 2035.
“The Canberra market has outperformed national counterparts with strong net absorption through government/private sector,” he said.
“Retail development sites within underserviced catchments such as Googong continue to command strong interest from developers, with Moving Annual Turnover retail spending projected to increase at an average annual growth rate of 11.2 per cent,” he added.
Stevens is expected to start building later this year.
Its project, with the balance of the Googong Town Centre, is scheduled to open in 2025.
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