Interstate buyer snaps up Darwin rural area mall Coolalinga Central for $80m

The $90m Coolalinga Central shopping centre has been sold to an interstate buyer for $10m less than its estimated value.

The $90m Coolalinga Central shopping centre has been sold to an interstate buyer for $10m less than its estimated value. Picture: Supplied

• Receivers selling off $90m Coolalinga Central
• Prominent Darwin retail centre on Stuart Highway sold for $4.5m

THE $90m Coolalinga Central shopping centre has been sold to an interstate buyer for $10m less than its estimated value.

Deloitte, acting on behalf of Victorian non-bank lender Wingate, was appointed last January to find a buyer after the Gwelo Investments centre went into receivership.

A report lodged with ASIC in the same month said Gwelo was owed rent from a number of tenants.

The $80m paid gets the east coast buyer a landmark 77,100sq m site 30km from the Darwin CBD offering its new owner an income stream of around $7m.

Deloitte called in global commercial real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle to do the heavy lifting on the sale.

Reports the shopping centre had hit rough seas first surfaced in June 2019 when Gwelo Developments put Coolalinga Central on the market, but failed to find a buyer.

When the shopping centre opened in 2017, the NT News reported the site, which included three stages, cost $400m to develop.

The cost included the civil works and the development of a large residential estate behind the shopping centre.

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The sale of Coolalinga Central came at a time of renewed interest by interstate investors in Northern Territory commercial properties.

Late last year SCA Property Group made its first acquisition in the Northern Territory buying the Bakewell Shopping Centre at Palmerston from Woolworths for $33m.

The 6407sq m neighbourhood shopping centre in Palmerston is anchored by a full-line Woolworths supermarket and BWS liquor store, plus 10 specialty tenants.

The Coolalinga Central sale attracted 13 formal offers to buy.

The anchor tenants are Coles and Kmart and Liquorland and the centre is surrounded by a complex that includes major fast food outlets, a tavern and other small business outlets.

Jones Lang LaSalle says all interested buyers were attracted to the Territory’s strong economic conditions, employment growth and outlook for major investment in the resource, government and defence sectors in the NT.

Leading interstate property investment firm Sentinel says it also has confidence in the Territory’s economy going forward. It wants to invest more than $200m in Darwin.

Its Darwin purchases include Jacana House, a prominent office building in the Darwin CBD, Arnhemica House in Parap and the CasCom Centre Business Park at Casuarina in Darwin’s north.

Last month it boosted its Darwin portfolio splashing out $4.5m for a prominent Stuart Highway business site at Berrimah.

The property is leased to RSEA Safety and Clark Rubber and has a 48m highway frontage and covers 3280 sqm.