A major shopping centre in the Northern Cairns suburb of Smithfield has sold to investment manager Alceon and CPRAM Investments.
JLL’s Sam Hatcher and Nick Willis, alongside Stonebridge’s Carl Molony handled the divestment of Smithfield on behalf of Lendlease who managed the asset for a separate mandated client.
The deal comes as Syndicator capital reaches record market share for retail acquisitions. According to JLL Retail Investments, over the course of 2023, syndicator buyers accounted for more than 40% of the total deal volumes which is substantially above the annualised average over the prior decade of just 16%.
The Smithfield Shopping Centre sale marks another acquisition for the longstanding Alceon and CPRAM joint venture. CPRAM, as asset manager for the JV, are well known for acquiring and repositioning shopping centres, such as Orange City Centre which has undergone a $24 million redevelopment to transform a former Myer tenancy into a new state-of-the-art retail and F&B precinct.
Hatcher said “There has been a resurgence of demand for retail property nationally as the asset class finished 2023 as the most traded property sector. This is the first time since 2004 that retail has surpassed either office or industrial transaction volumes and highlights the increasing capital demand for shopping centres due to their irreplaceability and social infrastructure importance.”
Smithfield Shopping Centre is a dominant sub-regional shopping centre anchored by Woolworths, Coles, Kmart and Event Cinemas. The centre sits on a large 12.4 ha land holding and is managed by Lendlease.
Willis said “The sub-regional sector continues to see strong capital demand, however available investment supply remains constrained. Over the past 12 months of transactions, we have we have witnessed a clear bifurcation emerge in the sector, with investors identifying relative value in non-core or regionally located centres that are providing an attractive spread to the increased costs of debt.”
Carl Molony said “The Cairns economy has continued to strengthen in recent years with record low unemployment driving by a substantial $11 billion pipeline of infrastructure and private projects. More specifically, there’s 440 ha of greenfield land which will deliver around 13,000 additional persons to northern Cairns, aiding the long-term growth of the region which will bolster the trade at Smithfield Shopping Centre.”
The Smithfield transaction by JLL and Stonebridge follows the recent sale of Eastgate Bondi Junction to Charter Hall for $126.95 million.
