EG sells retail asset on Gold Coast for $61.8m
Real estate fund manager EG offloaded a retail centre on the Gold Coast for $61.8 million.
The sale of the Circle on Cavill shopping centre, foreshadowed by The Australian Financial Review, settled this week after it was bought late last year in an off-market deal by Macau businessman and casino owner Loi Keong Kuong.
It is not Mr Loi’s first purchase on the Gold Coast. In 2018 he snapped up Soul Boardwalk, a troubled shopping centre nearby, at the base of the $850 million Soul tower at Surfers Paradise, for around $90 million.
The property went into receivership after 100 apartments at its residential tower, above the shopping centre, failed to settle in 2012.
Mr Loi also owns commercial office buildings in Sydney and Melbourne.
EG first put Circle on Cavill on the market in 2018 after buying it in 2010 in separate receivership deal valued at close to $40 million.
Located in Surfers Paradise, one of Australia’s busiest tourism destinations, Circle on Cavill has undergone extensive capital works and was the subject of a leasing program to refocus the facility towards customer experience and entertainment.
The mixed-use development now has 12,364sq m of gross lettable area across entertainment, dining, health and convenience-based retail as well as office space.
“We are very pleased with this result and also to see evidence that transactions of high-quality real estate are still completing in this cautionary environment” EG fund manager Daniel Farley said.
The transaction was brokered by JLL’s Sam Hatcher and Jacob Swan and McVay Real Estate’s Dan McVay and Sam McVay.
Mr Hatcher said the asset was acquired by an offshore investor who was “seeing through” the current global economic challenges and taking a long-term view on the resilience of both the Gold Coast and Australian economies.
“There is a huge level of pent-up offshore capital that will be deployed into Australia once COVID-19 settles – the recent changes to the Foreign Investment Review Board [rules] will just mean deals take a bit longer,” Mr Hatcher said.
He said JLL’s national retail team had concluded eight retail transactions in the first quarter of 2020 alone and was well advanced on a number of other mandates.
