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Centennial spends $52m on large format retail centre in Brisbane’s booming North Lakes
Centennial outlays $52m for fully leased 11,834 sqm large format retail centre at North Lakes adding to its growing retail portfolio
Vendor is HomeCo. | Sale brokered by Sam Hatcher and Nick Willis of JLL
North Lakes asset brings Centennial’s retail interests to four valued at $274m and includes Portside Wharf, Brisbane; Village on Summer, Orange, NSW; and Hinkler Central, Bundaberg, Qld
Site was acquired at close to land value with c. 12,000 sqm of improvements and significant income
BRISBANE, QLD: Centennial’s push into the nation’s neighbourhood and sub-regional retail sector has intensified after widening its scope to include its first large format retail (LFR) centre in one Australia’s fastest growing urban corridors at North Lakes, 30 minutes from Brisbane’s CBD.
The active investment manager and developer acquired a 100 per cent stake in the HomeCo. retail centre for $52m on a market yield above 6%. The sale was brokered by JLL’s Sam Hatcher and Nick Willis on behalf of HomeCo.
Centennial intends to capitalise on North Lakes’ emergence as a stand-alone shopping precinct and strong population growth forecasts currently sitting above the 1.4 per cent national average at 1.9 per cent.
The premium LFR asset comprises 11,834 sqm of gross lettable area that also includes 411 car parks on a significant land holding of 4ha with very low site coverage. The surplus land provides an opportunity to develop additional leasing space from its prime vantage point at 77 – 95 North Lakes Drive, which is also visible from the Bruce Highway and major connection roads.
Anchored by national tenants including Anaconda, Chemist Warehouse, Nick Scali and EMF Performance Gym, the North Lakes LFR asset also met Centennial’s retail investment mandate of identifying locations in land constrained markets, offering diversified and national tenancy mixes with longer lease profiles, and importantly, having higher replacement values to offset market downturns.
When Centennial offered the asset to its wholesale investors through a closed end, single asset fund, demand outstripped supply leaving the fund oversubscribed before the closing period, and further demonstrating investor appeal for LFR centres in high growth areas.
Centennial’s CEO, Paul Ford said North Lakes HomeCo, that will be rebranded Home+ North Lakes, is well positioned to capitalise on its locale within a cluster destination of other LFR centres, plus a major regional Westfield shopping centre located next door.
“To be able to secure such a high quality asset with very high underlying land value is a rare opportunity,” he said, adding, “but to also to secure a major retail centre with low site coverage at just 34 per cent in one of the nation’s highest growth corridors is a bonus and a great asset to add to our growing retail portfolio which is nearing $500m.”
Centennial’s Head of Retail – Capital Transactions and Funds Management, Lucas Forbes echoed Mr Ford’s sentiments, adding: “Only last week, Singaporean developer HB Land bought a 181-ha residential site in the region, that is slated to deliver up to 1,400 new homes.
“North Lakes is a master-planned community ‘success story’ that has evolved into a major retail, commercial and lifestyle region now servicing the wider, growing Moreton Bay catchment areas extending north to the Sunshine Coast.
“Combined with the Moreton Shire Council’s local government area’s above-average population growth and median age of 35, skewed towards couples with dependent children, large format retail centres offering furniture, lifestyle and hardware goods will continue to flourish.”
Drawn to the retail trade centre based on the region’s significant residential growth forecasts and stellar roster of national tenants accounting for 95 per cent of the centre’s income, Mr Forbes added: “Centennial would continue to source neighbourhood, sub regional and large format retail assets throughout the country where strong asset fundamentals, population growth and economic factors aligned.”
“We are delighted to gain a foothold in this fast growing region ahead of what’s becoming a major lifestyle destination in its own right.”
Centennial’s latest retail acquisition follows on from its purchase in 2025 of the Portside Wharf retail assets in Brisbane’s upscale riverfront precinct of Hamilton along with two sub-regional centres the group made with its Adelaide-based retail investment partner – Parkstone Funds Management – after jointly acquiring two major regional shopping centres in Bundaberg in Queensland and in Orange, New South Wales.
GALLERY
