A 100% interest in the Waverley Gardens Shopping Centre is being offered to the market, providing investors with an opportunity to acquire 106,000m2 of freehold Melbourne land securely underpinned by a rare triple-supermarket anchored sub-regional shopping centre.

Acquired by Elanor Investors and an affiliate of Heitman in 2018, the active fund manager has undertaken a successful $22 million repositioning of the former Target Discount Department Store, repurposing the asset with the relocation of ALDI, and introduction of Henry Mercato, TK Maxx, and a dedicated fresh food and health services precincts. Situated in affluent southeast Melbourne, Waverley Gardens is a convenience-focused retail offering with occupational and income resilience derived from the dominant 71% gross income weighting toward non-discretionary, services and food tenants and secure 5.3 year WALE (by area).

Elanor’s Co-Head of Real Estate, Michael Baliva, said “Waverley Gardens is a superbly positioned town centre location in Melbourne’s growth corridor. Our completed repositioning ensures that the centre offers a defensive and secure cash flow, supported by its triple supermarket anchored and non-discretionary focused tenancy mix, while also unlocking the property’s alternative use potential to take advantage of its proximity to significant transport infrastructure”.

Waverley Gardens is strategically located at the intersection of the Monash Freeway (M1) and Eastlink (M3), providing a seamless connection to the future North East Link and access to an outstanding 1.35 million people within a 20-minute drive time. The property’s population access and its role as a transit hub will be further bolstered by the completion of the North East Link, one of Melbourne’s largest infrastructure projects currently under construction to create Melbourne’s first orbital road network.

Expressions-Of-Interest for Waverley Gardens Shopping Centre close on Wednesday, 23rd of August 2023

JLL’s Retail Investments Team – (Australia) Nick Willis, Sam Hatcher and Stuart Taylor, alongside Stonebridge’s Carl Molony, Philip Gartland and Justin Dowers, have been exclusively appointed to sell Waverley Gardens via an Expressions-Of-Interest campaign.

Willis said, “The campaign presents an unmissable opportunity for both traditional retail investors and mixed-use capital. The centre is among an elite collective of sub-regional centres, being one of only ten assets in metropolitan Melbourne with a land size exceeding 10 hectares, of which, Waverley Gardens is the only asset readily available for an incoming purchaser to acquire a 100% controlling interest.”

“The land holding will drive the investment to underwrite, with the scarcity of land across the Melbourne metropolitan area being a major contributor to total investment returns. The rarity of Waverley Gardens’ land holding is further bolstered by its ability to be utilised for an array of alternative uses, subject to approvals,” said Willis.

Molony said, “Sub-regional centres have witnessed an influx of capital due to their strong investment thematic, offering a secure cash flow, and in the case of Waverley Gardens, underpinned by a flexible C1 zoned land holding and replacement cost in excess of investment value. The ability for these town centre locations to evolve over time to become vibrant mixed-use precincts, or to satisfy last mile infill demand, is appealing to core and core plus capital given the combined total returns from the retail and development components satisfy their investor return hurdles”.

Hatcher said, “From a valuation and pricing perspective, the retail sector continues to be increasingly attractive in comparison to other property sectors resulting in significant new sources of capital entering the sector. The investment market remained highly divergent as domestic and some offshore capital sources continued to selectively seek exposure to assets which were land rich and have a potential development upside with the ability to extract vale from alternate uses, namely sub-regional and large format retail assets.”

Elanor Investors Group is featured in the latest issue of Shopping Centre News. View the cover story article here.