ISPT’s portfolio of shopping centres and an office block put on the market

The portfolio contains Melbourne’s GPO, The Strand Melbourne, Halls Head Central WA and Eastgate Bondi Junction – some of the highest profile properties in the country.

Melbourne GPO has previously been used to launch spring fashion.

Property fund manager ISPT will take four shopping centres and a vacant office worth up to $600m in total to market after a strategic review of its flagship core fund.

The wholesale trust wants to sell off some of the country’s best retail assets and the empty Sydney CBD office building, saying that the assets did not fit with its plans.

The move by the superannuation-backed funds house signal that local funds are still in sales mode when it comes to traditional properties, and ISPT has pledged to put the proceeds into newer areas such as health sciences.

The four retail centres – Melbourne’s GPO, The Strand Melbourne, Halls Head Central WA and Eastgate Bondi Junction – are some of the highest profile properties in the country and are expected to be chased by big investors.

The office asset, 270 Pitt St, is billed as a unique re-positioning opportunity in Sydney’s CBD, and it could be turned into a hotel or even used for build-to-rent, as well as a more conventional office.

Agents have been appointed to oversee the sales campaigns, which will commence this week.

The proceeds generated from the disposals will be mainly reinvested into the fund’s existing development pipeline in its high-conviction sectors of industrial, and health and life sciences.

“ISPT’s Core Fund has a strong track record and an almost 30-year history of delivering outperformance for our investors,” ISPT head of funds management Matthew Brown said. “The real estate landscape is rapidly evolving, and by divesting tactical assets and recalibrating our existing sector exposures to create a diversified portfolio we can optimise returns for our investors.”

The $17.7bn core fund is invested in more than 80 property assets across various sectors, including retail, offices, industrial, education, health and life sciences, and is Australia’s largest wholesale property fund.

Melbourne’s GPO houses Australia’s largest H&M flagship store, secured on a renewed 10-year lease through to March 2034. The site occupies a high-profile 3856 sqm leasehold site on the busy intersection of Bourke Street Mall and Elizabeth St.

The Strand in Melbourne, which occupies two prime corners in one of the city’s most prominent CBD retail precincts, surrounded by the city’s most iconic laneways and arcades, is also on the block.

It is one of the most well-connected and highly exposed retail sites in Melbourne with direct access to Emporium Melbourne and the GPO, and sports top fashion and lifestyle retailers.

Both Melbourne centres are being sold by Simon Rooney and James Douglas of CBRE and Lachlan MacGillivray of Colliers. The Melbourne assets are worth more than $180m.

In Sydney, Eastgate Bondi Junction, is on the block in one of the first major Sydney retail offers this year. The 15,000 sqm centre is anchored by retail giants Coles, ALDI, Kmart and Dan Murphy’s. It is being sold via JLL’s Nick Willis, Sam Hatcher and Kate Low, and Stonebridge’s Justin Dowers, Carl Molony and Philip Gartland.

Halls Head Central, a convenience-based centre southwest of Perth, will also be sold, with co-owners Vicinity Centres putting its interest to market. The 19,540 sqm centre has a Kmart, Coles, ALDI and about 46 specialty shops, and is being handled by Mr Rooney and Mr Douglas.

The 270 Pitt St block in Sydney is billed as a major repositioning opportunity which an office player could overhaul as a green asset. But there is a growing trend of conversions of offices to hotels and units in the city.

The 22,662 sqm block is adjacent to the new metro station scheduled to open next year. CBRE’s Flint Davidson, James Parry and Michael Andrews and Knight Frank’s Ben Schubert, Paul Roberts and Jonathan Vaughan are handling the sale.