JLL’s Retail Investments team, Nick Willis and Sam Hatcher, have been appointed to sell HomeBase Wagga Wagga via an expressions-of-interest campaign that closes on Thursday 12 November 2020.
The more than 20,000m2 centre is a unique hybrid convenience-based retail and large format centre, the two best performing retail sub-sectors in 2020. Anchored by Harvey Norman, Spotlight, Fantastic Furniture and Officeworks – with complementary supporting convenience uses including KFC, Hungry Jacks and Bob Jane T-Marts – the centre forms the only purpose-built, true Large Format Retail Centre in the region.
“With the relative outperformance in the large format retail, neighbourhood and freestanding supermarket retail sub-sectors since March, demand for these assets has increased,” said Nick Willis.
“Investors have continued to show interest in sub-sectors benefitting from recent shifts in consumer spending patterns resulting from COVID-19. Further, there has been a real lack of available supply, particularly for quality dominant large format retail centres.”
“Purpose built, the stickiness of the income in the centre is underpinned by its strong historical tenant retention, with many of the original tenants still in occupation,” said Sam Hatcher. “In addition to the security of this investment, the centre provides additional expansion value-add opportunities to incorporate more traditional retail uses.”
JLL’s Senior Retail Research Analyst, Georgia Mack added: “Large format retail tenants have been the biggest beneficiary of government stimulus measures since the onset of the pandemic, which has resulted in a strong rebound in sales growth.
“The majority of household goods retailers were able to operate through the peak of the pandemic in Australia, with many able to practice social distancing due to the large size of most stores, resulting in monthly sales growth of 9% in March and 17% in May,” she said.
“Household goods sales in NSW grew by 28% in the year to July, the strongest rebound recorded of all categories. The resilient sales growth in the category, along with the comparatively lower rental benchmarks in large format retail centres, are expected to flow through to demand and leasing activity,” she added.
“The Government’s HomeBuilder stimulus program, which over 30,000 households have now accessed, will drive spending within typical large format retail tenant categories,” Mack concluded.
The Wagga Wagga, NSW property is set to officially come to market in the coming weeks with expressions-of-interest closing in early November 2020.
