Centennial Makes LFR Debut with North Lakes Buy
Centennial’s push into Australia’s neighbourhood and sub-regional retail sectors has widened to include its first large format retail (LFR) centre in one of the nation’s fastest-growing urban corridors.
The investment manager and developer has acquired the HomeCo. retail centre at North Lakes, 30 minutes north of the Brisbane CBD, for $52m on a market yield above 6 per cent.
The sale was brokered by JLL’s Sam Hatcher and Nick Willis on behalf of HomeCo.
Centennial said it intended to capitalise on North Lakes’ emergence as a standalone shopping precinct and strong population growth forecasts of above the 1.4 per cent national average at 1.9 per cent.
The premium LFR asset comprises 11,834sq m of gross lettable area that also includes 411 carparks on the 4ha site.
The site’s low coverage of 34 per cent meant the surplus land provided an opportunity to develop additional leasing space, Centennial said.
Anchored by national tenants including Anaconda, Chemist Warehouse, Nick Scali and EMF Performance Gym, the North Lakes LFR asset met Centennial’s retail investment mandate of identifying locations in land constrained markets, offering diversified and national tenancy mixes with longer lease profiles, and having higher replacement values to offset market downturns, it said.
“When Centennial offered the asset to its wholesale investors through a closed-end, single-asset fund, demand outstripped supply, leaving the fund oversubscribed before the closing period, and further demonstrating investor appeal for LFR centres in high-growth areas,” Centennial said.
Centennial chief executive Paul Ford said North Lakes HomeCo, which will be rebranded Home+ North Lakes, was well positioned to capitalise on its locale within a cluster destination of other LFR centres, plus a major regional Westfield shopping centre next door.
“To be able to secure such a high-quality asset with very high underlying land value is a rare opportunity,” he said.
“To also be able to secure a major retail centre with low site coverage ... in one of the nation’s highest growth corridors is a bonus, and a great asset to add to our growing retail portfolio which is nearing $500 million.”
Centennial head of retail—capital transactions and funds management, Lucas Forbes said that just last week Singaporean developer HB Land bought a 181ha residential site in the region. The site is expected to yield up to 1400 homes.
“North Lakes is a masterplanned community success story that has evolved into a major retail, commercial and lifestyle region now servicing the wider, growing Moreton Bay catchment areas extending north to the Sunshine Coast.
“Combined with the Moreton shire council local government area’s above-average population growth and median age of 35, skewed towards couples with dependent children, large format retail centres offering furniture, lifestyle and hardware goods will continue to flourish.”
The acquisition follows on from Centennial’s purchase in 2025 of the Portside Wharf retail assets in Brisbane’s Hamilton along with two sub-regional centres the group made with its Adelaide-based retail investment partner—Parkstone Funds Management—after jointly acquiring two major regional shopping centres in Bundaberg in Queensland and in Orange, New South Wales.
