Sentinel strikes on $300m Mackay mall deal
Fund manager Sentinel is the frontrunner to take over the largest shopping centre in Queensland’s Mackay region in a deal worth well more than $300 million, as the busy Brisbane-based investment business steps up its exposure to commercial property in the country’s north.
Although still in its early stages, the mooted transaction of Caneland Central will add fresh impetus to the retail real estate market, after it absorbed a record $12.8 billion of deals last year.
Led by Warren Ebert, Sentinel is major investor in the country’s northern markets, holding about $1 billion of commercial real estate in Mackay and further north already.
Earlier this year, the fund manager finalised its biggest acquisition since it was established more than a decade ago, taking over Darwin’s Casuarina Square shopping centre from GPT Group for about $400 million.
The Casuarina transaction, first flagged last October, was one of the biggest retail property deals in the northern capital and the largest sale of a 100 per cent interest in a shopping centre in almost two decades.
The Mackay acquisition, should it be finalised, would be struck on a yield of about 7 per cent. It was being brokered by JLL’s Nick Willis and Sam Hatcher, who declined to comment.
Caneland Central is a regional mall which extends across almost 66,000 square metres. Its anchor tenants include Myer, Coles, Woolworths, Target, and Big W.
On the sell side is Lendlease’s APPF Retail fund, which also declined to comment on the mooted divestment.
Big shift
Last year’s remarkable turnaround for the shopping mall market followed a run of hefty writedowns by major landlords responding to the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. By early last year, though, shopping mall values had stabilised as rents were re-based, prompting a resurgence in investment.
The enthusiasm of 2021 has carried into this year, with about $4 billion worth of major mall stakes in play.
Sizeable transactions are also beginning to take shape, such as Rich Lister Nick Andrianakos, who last week invested for the first time in a major shopping centre. He acquired a half stake in Adelaide’s Colonnades mall, worth more than $135 million, from the real estate empire accumulated by Perth property magnate Stan Perron.
That deal was struck on a generous yield of about 7 per cent.
The market’s focus will turn next to two major stakes up for grabs in Brisbane’s $1.2 billion Indooroopilly shopping centre.
A winning bidder could emerge within days for a 25 per cent stake in the mall held by a Dexus-run fund, while offers for a 50 per cent interest held by the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation are due in after.
