Newcomb shopping centre sells for c$38m
Shopping centre Bellarine Village, in Geelong’s inner east Newcomb, is selling again.
A local investor is speculated to be spending $38 million.
Vendor Westrent Property Pty Ltd, directed by plumbing and excavation business owner and developer, Emmanuel (Bill) Zahra, paid the Resofsky family $36.5m in 2018.
On 2.3 hectares, the complex contains 10,439 square metres of area anchored by a Woolworths, which is on a lease expiring in 2043, and Dan Murphy’s (2033).
The Reject Shop is a mini-major.
There are also 14 specialty outlets, two standalone stores – a Caltex Woolworths service station and Hungry Jack’s – and 315 car parks.
Newcomb is walking distance to Eastern Park.
Last week Pelligra Group picked up the nearby 465ha Moolap Saltworks (Cheetham Saltworks) – a site for years the subject of an urban renewal.
Franze Developments also started construction of a $200m mixed-use village, Geelong Quarter, replacing the Trans Otway bus depot in Geelong’s CBD.
In mid-2018, Mr Zahra sold a Woolworths backed supermarket in Hadfield, a pocket of Melbourne’s Glenroy, for $11.75m – a $2m profit on the price paid two years earlier (story continues below).
Private investors dominant capital source: agent
Westrent was represented by JLL’s Stuart Taylor.
“We are seeing a wave of capital looking to secure assets in the neighbourhood shopping centre and convenience retail sector,” the agent said of the campaign.
Seven Victorian investments of this type sold last year – the weighted average yield was 5.24 per cent.
The five year average return is 5.39pc, he added.
“These assets are being viewed as an investment ‘safe haven’ in the current climate given they derive the majority of their income from essential service businesses”, according to the executive.
“While private investors remain the dominant capital source, we have seen the emerge of new institutional capital enter the market,” Mr Taylor said.
Neighbourhood shopping centre yields are expected to compress in 2021.
