Woolworths Group has sold a neighbourhood shopping centre in Newcastle in New South Wales to Centuria Capital Group for $60.25 million.  

The 7,037 sqm Cameron Park Plaza was built by Woolworths Group’s development business Fabcot in 2020.  

The centre was anchored by a Woolworths supermarket and leased to three mini-major tenants, 17 specialist stores and two kiosks. 

More than 90% of gross income was underpinned by national and chain retailers. 

The 3.77-hectare site was situated in Newcastle’s rapidly developing Western Growth Corridor – 17 kilometres west of the Newcastle CBD and 110km north of the Sydney CBD.  

Centuria acquired the property on behalf of a global institutional investor, increasing the investor’s daily needs retail portfolio to more than $600 million. 

Colliers International’s James Wilson, Alex James-Elliott, Holly Simmonds and Nick Cavenagh managed the expression of interest sales campaign, which attracted more than 180 enquiries and 11 first-round offers. 

“Cameron Park Plaza generated incredibly competitive bidding from private and institutional investors, with the non-metro NSW Neighbourhood Shopping Centre campaign recording five offers at or below a 5% fully leased yield,” Wilson said.  

“The benchmark result highlights the depth of market targeting high quality Neighbourhood Shopping Centres that feature strong income growth potential.”  

James-Elliott said the campaign resulted in circa $500 million of qualified, undeployed capital, that was required to be invested. 

“We are currently working with a select number of the underbidders seeking to secure similarly strong performing neighbourhood shopping centres in NSW regional and metropolitan locations,” James-Elliott said.  

It’s the latest sale of a Woolworths-anchored retail property in NSW, following Woolworths Group’s sale of the Sapphire Marketplace shopping centre in Bega for $54.05 million in March.  

In January, Firmus Capital sold the Woolworths Schofields Shopping Centre in Sydney to a private investor for $37.5 million, while Primewest bought the Hurstville Retail Centre development in Hurstville, Sydney for $41.5 million last December.  

In the first quarter of 2022, retail property investment volumes reached $2.7 billion across Australia, down 13% compared to the same period last year, according to Real Capital Analytics.       

However, retail investment was up 119% to $19.6 billion during the 12 months ending Q1 2022.