Plans to add fast food outlet to Townsville shopping centre

An interstate syndicate has bought a Townsville Kmart precinct for a tidy sum, with a new fast food venue potentially destined for the site.

A syndicate headed by Sydney fund managers Mark Slot and Benlee Property Trust’s John Dalley have bought Stockland’s Coles Kmart plaza in Townsville for $47.25 million.

Stockland, which jointly owned the centre with AMP Capital, alerted tenants to the pending transaction just before Christmas.

Mr Dalley said he and Mr Slot had acquired the centre sight unseen with help of local consultants.

“We thought it had future growth and capital appreciation potential. We pursued it and were lucky enough to be the winning bidder,” Mr Dalley said.

Mr Dalley said there was potential to add another fast food outlet to join Red Rooster as well as add to the centre’s tenancy mix.

A Kmart discount department store and Coles supermarket are the centre’s anchor tenants which Mr Dalley said were high turnover stores both trading very well.

The centre has more than 20 specialist tenancies and 730 on-grade car parks.

“We are very focused on providing a good service to our tenants and focused as much as we can to fill the tenancies. We have engaged a local centre manager who will be on site full time,” Mr Dalley said.

The deal is understood to have equated to a fully leased yield of 5.5 per cent.

The 4.2ha property is a key site on one of Queensland’s busiest intersections at the corner of Nathan St and Ross River Rd.

Stockland acquired the centre from the troubled Centro group for $36.5m in 2012 before selling a half share of both its Townsville Myer-anchored centre and the Coles Kmart centre to the AMP Capital Shopping Centre Fund for $228.7m in 2014.

But with a loss in property values in Townsville and, more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic, the value of the Stockland holdings has been written down substantially.

In its 2020-21 annual report, Stockland assessed the book value of its 50 per cent holding in both Townsville centres at $156.5m.

Stockland also owns other property in the area, including the former Sunvale and Kingsvale properties, where it has proposed a cinema and entertainment project but did not proceed.

The properties have remained boarded up, attracting criticism Stockland has turned the area into a ghetto.

In a business strategy update in November, Stockland said it wanted to reduce its exposure to retail and retirement living from 50 per cent of its portfolio down to less than 30 per cent.

Stockland sold its North Shore shopping centre in Townsville in 2020 for $17m.

Originally published as Plans to add fast food outlet to Townsville shopping centre