AMP sells outer Sydney retail centre for $140M

By Business News Australia

20 March 2019

AMP sells outer Sydney retail centre for $140M

A retail centre 35km west of the Sydney CBD that houses anchor tenants including Bunnings and The Good Guys has been sold for $140 million to property investment firm Ashe Morgan.

AMP Capital Diversified Property Fund sold the Crossroads Homemaker Centre in a deal that was co-marketed by Stonebridge Property Group and CBRE.

CBRE highlights the transaction for the 48,400sqm-plus centre shows continued demand for Sydney metropolitan retail assets.

Located on the corner of Beech Road and Camden Valley Way, Casula, Crossroads hosts 28 large format retailers also including Freedom, Nick Scali and Fantastic Furniture.

The property, which was developed by AMP Capital after its acquisition of the 143,400sqm site in 2002, also benefits from proximity to one of Sydney's two Costco wholesale supermarkets.

"Despite forecast headwinds in the retail sector, we are continuing to see an uplift in enquiry and bidder interest as investors identify relative value in the sector compared to other commercial real estate sectors," says CBRE agent Nick Wills.

"This was again evidenced with Crossroads Homemaker Centre, where we attracted strong and diverse investor interest from private and institutional groups, with 46% of the formal offers received being maiden capital into the large format retail sector.

"The Homemaker Centre's strategic gateway position in Sydney's south west growth corridor, coupled with its143,400 sqm underlying land area over four separate lots, provides flexibility to adapt the asset to meet the needs of the rapidly changing surrounds."

Jonathan Fox of Stonebridge added the volume of enquiry was extremely strong during the sale campaign.

"We received 13 expressions of interest and the highly competitive second round process highlighted the depth of demand for quality Sydney metropolitan retail assets," Fox said.