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A prominent business family is divesting itself of two shopping centres in Western Australia’s south-west region after owning them for more than a decade.
The Vukelic family is offering the Margaret River Shopping Centre and the Busselton Boulevard Shopping Centre, south of Perth. Both centres have Coles as an anchor tenant.
They are expected to fetch a total of more than $40 million.
CBRE’s James Douglas and VPG Property’s Craig Butler will manage the sale on behalf of the family, who own the centres through Vukelic Properties, according to Corelogic’s RP data records.
The Vukelic family got its start when Paul Vukelic ran a service station before moving in to car sales and then property development.
An expressions of interest campaign for the centres is due to on November 23.
The Margaret River Shopping Centre is on a 4622sq m site at 132 Bussell Highway with a gross lettable area of 2994 square metres.
Coles has a lease until 2026. The mall has four speciality tenancies and 224 carparking spaces.
Vukelic Properties bought the site in December 2010 for just over $11 million from Perpetual Limited, who had bought it from Coles Myer Property Development in July 2001 for $5.95 million.
Across the highway from the centre is The Village at Margs, which was bought in 2019 by Perdaman Commerical Property Group for more than $20 million. It was purpose-built for anchor tenant Woolworths in 2013 and was previously owned by SCA Property Group, who sold it to Sirona Capital in 2015 for $18 million.
The Busselton Boulevard Shopping Centre was bought by the family in October 2011 for $16.5 million.
The shopping centre is on a 5785sq m site at 69 Princes Street and was built in 1987, and has changed hands several times.
Cockles Pty Ltd paid $14.1 million for it in September 2008 before selling it to the Vukelic family.
It has a gross lettable area of 4797sq m with 15 speciality tenancies alongside Coles.
Busselton is undergoing a state and federal government-supported 10-year urban-renewal project that will include a Hilton hotel scheduled to open in 2023.
Australian Unity owns and is finishing up redeveloping another mall in the town, Busselton Shopping Centre, for $45 million.
Large-format retail, particularly in regional areas with a population upswing, is seeing a surge in interest from investors both domestically and overseas.
This month, Singapore-based Sim Lian Metro Capital bought up the 16,535sq m Shepparton Marketplace for $88.1 million off-market from Dexus Wholesale Property Fund through CBRE’s Simon Rooney and James Douglas.
The site has space for future development and expansion and has Woolworths as an anchor tenant.
Hong Kong-based JY Group also bought up a 50 per cent stake in Sydney’s Carlingford Court for $120.5 million in September this year while another Woolworths-anchor-tenanted mall, the Ormeau Marketplace in South East Queensland, was sold by regional fund manager Clarence Property for $34 million to a private investor in the same month.
Woolworths is also preparing to sell its Dakabin and Bannockburn centres in south-east Queensland while remaining as an anchor tenant at both.
Brisbane’s Westpoint Shopping Centre, also with Woolworths as an anchor tenant, was listed for sale via an expressions-of-interest campaign in August this year for the first time in 18 years.
The large-format-retail market is so strong that there are two developments under way in Adelaide including a 4000sq m site at Munno Para and a 3500sq m site at Parafield.
There has been an increase in development in Western Australia’s key south-west coastal towns as more people move to regional areas, only a few hours’ drive from Perth.
Douglas said that as the towns that also attracted tourists were often more heavily preferred by new residents, large-format-retail investors reaped the benefits of having both groups as customers.
“We’re expecting strong interest from a range of investors for these assets,” Douglas said.
“Both assets enjoy dual catchments and retail sale opportunities, with permanent residents as well as a burgeoning tourism influence.”
