Blackstone lists Figtree Grove shopping centre in Wollongong

Blackstone is looking to break off another piece of its $3 billion retail property empire through the offer of Figtree Grove.

Figtree Grove in Wollongong is home to Coles and Woolworths.

Private equity and property giant Blackstone is looking to break off another piece of its $3 billion retail property empire in Australia through the offer of Figtree Grove, a major subregional shopping centre in Wollongong, for more than $210 million.

The marketing of the property comes after it put Sydney’s Top Ryde City Shopping Centre on the block for $700m in May, in a move that could see it double its investment in the centre after a five-year turnaround program.

Blackstone bought the then Westfield Figtree as part of a $783m package sold by the Scentre Group, which operates Westfield shopping centres in Australasia, in late 2015.

Now known as Figtree Grove, it is ranked 16th out of 100 Little Guns centres and is pitched as the highest-turnover subregional centre in Wollongong.

Blackstone has remixed Figtree Grove so it is focused on convenience shopping and it delivers specialty productivity of $10,027 per square metre.

It is anchored by one of Australia’s best performing Kmart stores and has a strongly performing Coles and Woolworths.

The complex spans a gross lettable area of 21,945sq m and has annual turnover of $196.4m.

It is being marketed by Lachlan MacGillivray of Colliers International.

Blackstone is rumoured to have attracted strong interest in Top Ryde, but a deal is yet to emerge. The group took control of the once-troubled centre in late 2012 through a $341m debt play.

Blackstone won interest from Singaporean group Frasers Property and Elanor Investors Group last year in two malls in its 11-strong portfolio, but it held on to the assets.

Frasers eyed Greensborough Plaza in Melbourne’s northeast and Elanor looked at the $200m Waverley Gardens.