QIC Property Fund to sell 50 per cent stake in Westfield Helensvale shopping centre on Gold Coast
A fifty per cent stake in one of the Gold Coast’s largest shopping centres is on the market, with the potential sale tipped to be worth hundreds of millions.
Business
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A SHARE in one of the Gold Coast’s largest shopping centres is on the market, with the State Government’s fund manager selling out of its stake in Westfield Helensvale.
Queensland Investment Commission is preparing to market its 50 per cent stake in the centre, which was built in 2005 and hosts 6.3 million customers a year.
QIC’s share in the centre is likely to sell for a nine-figure sum, with recent 50 per cent stakes in regional shopping centres including Western Australia’s Garden City centre, which was acquired by Scentre Group in 2019 for $575m, and YFG’s two-stage purchase of Mt Ommaney shopping centre in Brisbane for $380m, in a deal which concluded in early 2020.
Scentre Group currently owns the other 50 per cent stake in Westfield Helensvale, along with the neighbouring site of the former NightQuarter markets, which is tipped to be the home of a new McDonalds, 7-11 and KFC and another three blocks - all of which will be included in the sale.
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CBRE has been appointed to steer the high-profile sale campaign on behalf of the QIC Property Fund.
The agency’s head of retail capital markets Simon Rooney said investors were actively seeking top-end shopping centre opportunities.
“While early days, we are seeing a clear value and performance reset in the regional shopping centre sector in 2021, with the best assets recording strong monthly turnover and traffic growth in addition to income stabilisation,” he said.
“This value proposition has become increasingly compelling for investors, given the comparative returns on offer from alternative asset classes, where pricing levels are at historic highs.”
CBRE said the centre was located on an under-utilised, 17.27ha site, with about 44,800 sqm of lettable space.
Major national retailers Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, Kmart and Target account for 88 per cent of the total GLA and contribute to the centre’s high visitation rate of over 6.3 million customers each year.
Mr Rooney said the 50 per cent stake represented a rare opportunity to secure a high quality regional shopping centre interest.
“We expect this very strategic 50 per cent stake in Westfield Helensvale to be competitively contested, as regional assets of this nature are traditionally tightly held and rarely traded,” he said.
“The centre’s high productivity, robust performance and solid rebound post Queensland’s Covid lockdowns, will help drive competitive investor interest, as will the asset’s strategic growth corridor location, high customer spend and surrounding significant transport infrastructure.”
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