Billionaire Sam Arnaout buys Sydney’s iconic St Ives Shopping Village for $450m
Billionaire Sam Arnaout has expanded his pubs and hospitality empire, with a hefty pivot into retail on Sydney’s pricey North Shore. What will he do with it?
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Billionaire Sam Arnaout is expanding his holdings beyond pubs and hospitality with the purchase of the landmark St Ives Shopping Village on Sydney’s North Shore for $450m.
The purchase marks the entrance of the former panel beater, who has amassed a fortune of about $2.5bn, into the large-scale shopping centre market, and adds to his collection of more than 35 pubs and accommodation hotels.
His Iris Capital operation is expected to use the purchase of the St Ives Shopping Village to set up a retail property platform in the same way he did with pubs.
Iris Capital chief executive Mr Arnaout said that St Ives Shopping Village had long been identified by the firm as the “perfect entry point” into the Australian retail ownership landscape.
“The centre is highly coveted and has consistently been ranked No. 1 across all of Australia in the Shopping Centre News Mini Guns rankings over the last 20 years due to its unique market positioning and outstanding tenant performance,” he said.
“In addition to these fundamentals, St Ives Shopping Village is well positioned to benefit from significant tailwinds benefiting the retail sector and the location, specifically the chronic under-supply of retail floor space in the catchment, combined with the opportunity to deliver critically needed further residential supply to the area.”
Selling agent Lachlan MacGillivray of Colliers said the sale reinforced the “significant buyer demand and extremely limited supply” for high-quality and irreplaceable retail assets. It showed a yield in the low 5 per cent range.
Mr MacGillivray said this sale took year-to-date retail transactions to more than $3.4bn, signalling significant appetite for exposure in the sector.
The deal comes in the wake of large-scale retail deals, including Haben and Hines’ purchase of Westpoint Blacktown, and GPT setting up a partnership with the Perron Group over two assets in Western Australia.
St Ives will slot well into the Iris empire as it holds longer-term development potential which could have it join his sites in Newcastle and on the Gold Coast, where Iris Capital is undertaking high-rise precincts.
St Ives Shopping Village and 11 adjoining properties were put on the market in 2022. They were offered in one line, creating an amalgamated development site totalling more than 25,000sq m.
The centre was owned by the Katz family’s E.K. Nominees since 1986, and the properties along Mona Vale Road and in Denley Lane are leased to restaurants, professional and community services. The centre is anchored by Woolworths, Coles, and Harris Farm Markets, each of which performs strongly, and there are more than 100 lifestyle, fashion, food, and convenience retailers, alongside health, wellbeing, and other services.
What will he do with it?
Mr Arnaout could look to create a mixed-use hub in the heart of one of Sydney’s most sought-after suburbs, and draw in new retailers and services. Any redevelopment could also result in the introduction of new lifestyle and leisure facilities to the precinct.
The property tycoon, who has picked markets early since buying his first hotel 24 years ago, was also actively buying up pubs at the end of last year. He bought two Sydney pubs in a deal worth close to $200m – the Cabramatta Hotel and the El Cortez Hotel, in Canley Heights. They are both in Sydney’s western gaming heartland and also come with development potential.
Iris Capital knows the north shore well as Mr Arnaout lives at Manly, where he is developing the luxury Oceania, a collection of seven large apartments providing absolute beach frontage. The penthouse in that project sold for a record price of more than $22m.
He also owns the Steyne Hotel, which he purchased for $65m from publican Arthur Laundy, adman John Singleton and entrepreneur Robert Whyte, as well as the Ivanhoe Hotel Manly.
The developer – who also has housing developments in Newcastle, north of Sydney, and in Potts Point, closer to the Sydney CBD – has major gaming interests. He owns Casino Canberra and Lasseters Casino in Alice Springs, and is also in a $200m-plus takeover battle for the Reef Casino Trust against billionaire Chris Morris. But he is also making strides with large-scale residential projects. On the Gold Coast he has the $800m Victoria & Albert in Broadbeach, and is working to complete its landmark Newcastle city centre development, East End.
Iris Capital’s involvement in Newcastle started back in 2016, when it acquired the Hunter Street Mall, a prime 1.66-hectare street site in the heart of the city.
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Originally published as Billionaire Sam Arnaout buys Sydney’s iconic St Ives Shopping Village for $450m
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