Corio Central owner shopping for a buyer
CORIO Central is set to become the region’s most expensive shopping centre to sell in a year when almost $200 million worth of assets has already changed hands.
The northern suburbs shopping hub has been put on the market along with Belmont Village in a national portfolio of 14 individual assets by national retail landlord Vicinity Centres.
Vicinity, which co-owns Melbourne’s Emporium and Chadstone complexes with property billionaire John Gandel, announced plans in June to offload up to $1 billion worth of subregional and neighbourhood centres.
Proceeds from the sale would be used on redevelopments at major centres including The Glen and Box Hill Central in Melbourne, Galleria in Perth and Chatswood Chase and Bankstown Central in Sydney.
JLL’s head of retail investments in Australasia, Simon Rooney, is handling the sale.
Mr Rooney said the shop- ping centres were being offered in a national portfolio of 14 shopping centres, but the assets could be sold off individually.
Other centres in the portfolio are located in New South Wales, southeast Queensland and Western Australia.
The expressions of interest campaign closes on August 23.
Vicinity Centres listed Corio Central’s value at $130 million in its interim results published in February, while Belmont Village was worth $50 million.
Corio Central is Geelong’s fourth-largest shopping centre behind Westfield Geelong, Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre, and Leopold’s Gateway Plaza (including Bunnings), with more than 31,000 sqm of floorspace.
It is anchored by Kmart, Coles and Woolworths, with a total trade area forecast to grow to more than 62,000 people by 2027.
Major retail expenditure generated in the total trade area, estimated at $700 million, is expected to grow to $929 million by 2027.
Vicinity Centres was also involved in the $117 million sale of Gateway Plaza to Charter Hall Retail Fund in June.
Earlier shopping centre sales in the region include Bellarine Village, which sold for $36.5 million to a private investor from Melbourne, while Toorak-based investor David Feldman acquired Torquay Village from Coles for $35 million in February.
Corio Central opened in 1973 as Corio Village.
A Vicinity Centres spokesman said it’s business as usual at the on-the-market shopping centres.