Woolworths Coomera East shopping centre sells to a Sydney-based private investor

A busy Gold Coast shopping centre in one of the city’s fastest-growing suburbs has sold, with plans to expand the complex to include a residential unit tower. FIND OUT MORE

A leading property agent says investor interest in Gold Coast shopping centres is ramping up, with a Coomera complex the latest to change hands.

Colliers International sold the Woolworths Coomera East shopping centre to a Sydney-based private investor for an undisclosed sum after a highly competitive expressions of interest campaign.

Colliers Retail Middle Markets head James Wilson said interest in the complex had exceeded all expectations.

“The Woolworths Coomera East Shopping Centre campaign generated exceptional levels of interest and attracted more than 150 inquiries with $180 million in unsatisfied capital, reflecting growing investor appetite for the neighbourhood shopping centre sector,” he said.

Woolworths Coomera East has been sold by Colliers.

“Colliers Retail Middle Markets’ national platform extracted offers from local, interstate, and offshore private capital … ultimately a first-time shopping centre investor from Sydney secured the centre.”

Colliers associate director Harry Dever said international investors made up a significant number of the potential buyers.

“As only the second Woolworths-anchored shopping centre to be publicly marketed in Queensland in 2024, this was an opportunity for investors to deploy pent-up capital into a secure investment where income was underpinned by inflationary resilient tenants,” he said.

“The activity we saw during the campaign was unwavering, with over 50 groups active in the dataroom.

“From the offers we received, 50 per cent of bids were from offshore capital and 83 per cent from private investors who continue to be the most aggressive capital in the neighbourhood space.”

The shopping centre was built in 2016 and has eight tenants along with Woolworths, locked in on a 15-year lease with the option to remain in place until 2076.

Woolworths Coomera East has been sold by Colliers.

It also has development application approval to build a six-storey residential unit block complex at the site.

Colliers tips retail spending in the area now tops $290m annually and will reach $624m within 12 years, an annual growth rate of around 5.6 per cent.

The northern Gold Coast is among the fastest growing regions in the country as the city moves rapidly towards a population of 1 million by the 2040s.

Data released in late 2023 by demographer Mark McCrindle showed the northern suburbs would bear the brunt of that increase.

“But what’s most remarkable is the growth of the northern part of the Gold Coast, which has a current population of just under 300,000 but in 2046, it will have a population of 500,000 in its own right.

“This is just the northern part of the Gold Coast, being the three statistical areas that the Australian Bureau of Statistics uses of Ormeau/Oxenford, Gold Coast North, and Southport.

“So this means massive growth — the Gold Coast itself to 2047 is going to grow by 54 per cent while the northern part of the Gold Coast will grow by 67 per cent and indeed Ormeau/Oxenford area growing by 75 per cent.”

Originally published as Woolworths Coomera East shopping centre sells to a Sydney-based private investor