JY Group Pays $318m to Scoop Up Bankstown Retail Asset

Retail continues to capture investor appetite with Sydney-based JY Group loosening the purse strings to snap up a 50 per cent stake in Sydney’s Bankstown Central. 

The $318.6-million acquisition lifts the group’s shopping centre portfolio nationally to more than $3.5 billion. 

The deal follows the acquisition of a 50 per cent stake in Sydney’s Warriewood Square in late 2024.

It also owns retail assets across Melbourne and Wollongong, as well as a resort in Cairns. 

The remaining 50 per cent interest in the Bankstown Square asset is held by Vicinity Centres, according to CBRE head of retail capital markets Simon Rooney, who led the off-market sale process. 

It punctuated a strong trend towards part share deals during the past two years, Rooney said. 

“About $10.3 billion in major Australian shopping centre sales have been completed since the start of 2024, with 15 part-share deals totalling $4.3 billion finalised over the same period,” Rooney said.

▲ The Bankstown Central site is opposite the train station and close to the new Bankstown Hospital site.

“The Bankstown Central sales process was hotly contested, with several bids received from a range of domestic and offshore groups. 

“The centre’s strategic metropolitan location in one of the most tightly held investment destinations in Australia was a key drawcard, as was the asset’s strong underlying retail fundamentals, exceptional retailer performance, local transport amenity and genuine value-add potential.”

Bankstown Central, about 17km south-west of the Sydney CBD, is a three-level shopping centre in the heart of Bankstown. 

It has a gross lettable area of 78,530sq m and is anchored by Myer, Big W, Kmart, Coles and Woolworths in addition to almost 200 specialty stores. 

The centre underwent a $60-million refurbishment completed in 2022.

The 11.4ha site is opposite the Bankstown train station, which is undergoing a major upgrade, and near the new $2-billion Bankstown Hospital site.

Designs for the new hospital were unveiled this week.

▲ Concept designs have been released for the $2-billion Bankstown Hospital.

The concept designs are for a new multi-storey building to accommodate acute services, including emergency, operating theatres and in-patient wards. 

The project is in the early planning stage, but Premier Chris Minns described it as “the largest single capital works investment in a public hospital in NSW’s history”.