Toowoomba’s Clifford Gardens Shopping Centre sells to investment joint venture for $145m after Blackstone Group sale

A joint venture will fork out $145m for one of Toowoomba’s largest shopping centres. But the price tag isn’t exactly eye-watering, compared to its previous sale five years ago.

Toowoomba: Clifford Gardens Shopping Centre. Photo Bev Lacey / The Chronicle

One of Toowoomba‘s largest shopping centres has been snapped up by an investment joint venture for $145m, just five years after it was last sold for a lot more.

Clifford Gardens in Newtown has been moved on by massive investment firm Blackstone Group, with the company looking to offload parts of its retail portfolio.

ASX-listed Elanor Investors Group and Savills Investment Management have bought the centre, netting it with a yield of 7.9 per cent.

This is $21m less than what Blackstone Group paid for the centre in 2016, and well below the replacement cost of $171m.

EIG real estate co-head Michael Baliva said the centre held strong growth potential.

“We are delighted to have secured this high investment quality property for our capital partners,” he said.

“Clifford Gardens has significant value-add potential given the Toowoomba region’s substantial infrastructure projects in progress, the centre’s prominent CBD location, and the opportunity to introduce a health, medical and essential services precinct at the property.

Additional opportunities exist to unlock value from the under-utilised land on the extensive nine-hectare site.

Our strategy is focused on enhancing both the income and capital value of the property for our capital partners.”

Elanor CEO Glenn Willis said the company made a number of recent commitments to investment commercial retail properties like Clifford Gardens.

“This investment exemplifies Elanor’s strategy of acquiring high quality real estate where we see the opportunity to unlock value through our active asset management approach,” he said.

“The recent successful repositioning of the Auburn Central shopping centre highlights our market leading capability in this sector and continues our outstanding track record of transforming subregional shopping centres into strongly performing, non-discretionary focused retail assets to deliver strong investment returns for our capital partners.”

Savills Investment Management’s Australian head Greg Lapham said he was excited at the potential of the asset, and looked forward to working with Elanor on the project.

The sale has excited local property experts, with Hodge Real Estate’s Edward Hodge saying it was a sign of Toowoomba’s maturity as a regional centre.

“There is clearly more capital than available deals in the market right now,” he said.

“We should expect an inflow of funds into Toowoomba and other regional markets from major institutions like Elanor.”