Bond Pays $56m for Second Large Format Retail Asset

The large format retail subsector’s hot streak continues with an asset near Newcastle in NSW selling for $56.5 million.

Fund house Cosgrove Group has acquired the centre at Warners Bay from HomeCo Daily Needs REIT in a deal brokered by Colliers.

It is is the second between the parties after the sale of a 23,400sq m large format retail centre at Midland in WA last year for $74.75 million.

Cosgrove Group, the funds house of property developer Banjo Bond, in July this year paid $116.5m to Centuria for The Esplanade Hotel at Fremantle.

Bond is the grandson of controversial Australian businessman, the late Alan Bond.

HomeCo Warners Bay was 14km south-west of the Newcastle CBD in a recognised population corridor, Colliers said.

The 12,336sq m centre is occupied by ASX-listed and/or national tenants and has a WALE of 4.6-years.

▲ Cosgrove Group paid $74.75 million to HomeCo Daily Needs REIT for this centre at Midland, WA last year.

Banjo Bond [pictured top], director of Cosgrove Group, said it was “an established and well-trading centre on a large landholding fronting major road infrastructure”.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find land large enough to develop LFR centres with any scale, which we believe will make this asset more valuable in the future.”

Tenants include The Good Guys, Officeworks, Supercheap Auto and Pillow Talk.

Colliers retail middle markets head James Wilson said HomeCo Warners Bay was the second largest large format retail centre to transact nationally in 2024— MLC Asset Management paid developer Griffith Capital $57 million for the Bayview Centre on the NSW South Coast in June.