Charter Hall acquires Brickworks Marketplace

Charter Hall acquires Brickworks MarketplaceWoolworths has sold the Brickworks Marketplace development in Torrensville, Adelaide – a sought-after South Australian retail market – to Charter Hall for an estimated $75 million. Located approximately 4 kilometres from the Adelaide CBD, the Brickworks Marketplace site previously housed the iconic Brickworks Market.A new centre will be built, comprising a 17,300 sqm subregional shopping centre, which will include a BIG W discount department store, Woolworths supermarket, Dan Murphy’s liquor store and approximately 5200 sqm of supporting retail specialty space.The shopping centre will be constructed by Woolworths, with expected completion around mid-2015.Simon Rooney, JLL’s head of retail investments – Australia, helped to negotiate the transaction. “The Adelaide market has been very active of late,” he said. “The successful sale of Brickworks Marketplace in Adelaide follows the sale of Golden Grove ($129.1 million) in July to Challenger Life, and Arndale Central ($152 million) in September to Armada Funds Management.” The addition of Brickworks Marketplace to Charter Hall’s portfolio follows the firm’s recent joint-venture acquisition (with HOSTPLUS) of a $603-million portfolio of properties from Woolworths subsidiary ALH.”There is strong investor demand for subregional shopping centres at present,” said Rooney. “The recent successful fund recapitalisation of Lend Lease REP3, negotiated by JLL, which comprised five subregional centres for in excess of $600 million, demonstrated the significant strength in investor demand for assets in this retail category.”We are looking to shortly finalise a further $0 million of subregional transactions in the near term,” he added.