Charter Hall Pays $210m for Burwood One Shopping Centre

Two shopping centre acquisitions totalling $362.5 million have pushed Charter Hall Group’s ownership of Australia’s rarest retail format—triple supermarket anchored neighbourhood centres—to 40 per cent of the national stock.

The fund manager has paid $210 million for Burwood One Shopping Centre in Victoria and $152.5 million for Southport Park Shopping Centre in Queensland, adding both to its $2.5 billion Charter Hall Convenience Retail Fund (CCRF).

Burwood One is on a 58,800sq m Commercial 1 zoned site at the intersection of Burwood Highway and Blackburn Road, 17km east of Melbourne’s CBD.

The site last traded in 2018 for $181.5 million to a Hong Kong-based investor.

The fully leased shopping centre is anchored by Coles, Kmart and Aldi, supported by seven mini majors, 40 specialty stores and eight kiosks.

▲ Burwood One, one of two triple supermarket anchored neighbourhood centres Charter Hall has acquired in quick succession.

The Coles and Kmart stores are among the best-performing nationally for their brands. Kmart’s Burwood store, which opened in 1969, is Australia’s oldest Kmart location.

Charter Hall Retail chief executive Ben Ellis said the Burwood One acquisition continued the fund’s strategy of targeting high-performing convenience centres “well positioned for future growth ... as well as future value add with development potential”.

The fund manager completed the acquisition of Southport Park Shopping Centre for $152.5 million within days of the Burwood One transaction.

▲ The 19,900sq m Gold Coast centre is anchored by Coles, Woolworths and Aldi on a 6.5ha mixed-use zoned site fronting Benowa and Ferry roads.

Charter Hall’s broader convenience retail platform manages $16 billion in assets across Australia and it now owns 40 per cent of triple supermarket anchored neighbourhood shopping centres nationally.

Charter Hall has had an active year of transactions, including the $145-million purchase of Chullora Marketplace in Sydney and the $170-million acquisition of Waverley Gardens Shopping Centre in Melbourne in July.

The fund manager has deployed more than $600 million across convenience retail assets during the year while divesting non-core holdings, including a $44-million Bunnings warehouse at Clyde North.