Charter Hall Scoops Up Corio Retail Centre for $146m

A major retail asset near Melbourne has changed owners again, this time trading to Charter Hall for $146 million.

The Corio Village Shopping Centre was divested by Melbourne property house IPG, who had paid $101 million to Vicinity Centres for the asset in 2019.

The 33,600sq m shopping centre, on the fringe of metropolitan Melbourne at north Geelong, is anchored by Coles and Woolworths supermarkets and also counts Kmart, six mini-majors and 68 convenience specialty stores as tenants.

Charter Hall Retail chief executive Ben Ellis said that as the largest owner of convenience retail in Australia, with a portfolio of $14 billion, Charter Hall continued to selectively curate portfolio strategies for its managed funds.

“We pursued Corio for its anchor supermarket convenience attributes, which reflected a 7 per cent cap rate,” he said.

“Combined with forecast income growth, it’s expected to deliver accretive returns for the partnership.”

The Corio transaction was secured off market by the Charter Hall transactions team, negotiated via the vendor agent JLL.

The dominant retail centre in its catchment, Corio Village has an annual turnover of around $200 million.

▲ The Coles-anchored Kurralta Village was opened in 1969.

Meanwhile in South Australia, Coles has offloaded a sub-regional shopping centre in inner Adelaide.

Kurralta Village was sold via an off-market deal for $75.2 million to a private South Australian-based investor.

The deal was negotiated by Ryan Mills, Max Frohlich and Campbell Aitken of Knight Frank.

The property at 153 Anzac Highway at Kurralta Park, about 4km south-west of the Adelaide CBD, has 10,669sq m of gross lettable area on a prominent 32,570sq m site and 542 carparks.

“The centre is 100 per cent occupied and anchored by strongly trading Coles and Kmart operating alongside 12 specialty stores,” the agents said.

“It has a net passing income of around $3.5 million per annum and a WALE of 6 years by income.”

The centre has been acquired by Taplin Group. The group owns and manages several well-established and high-performing supermarket-anchored shopping centres in SA.

Mills said the Coles Group had acquired the centre in 2023 for $74.25 million. Knight Frank has now on-sold the property for a premium after the security of the major supermarket retailer’s lease was added.

He said Taplin Group planned to expand the Kurralta Village Shopping Centre, and Coles would grow its footprint to a full-line supermarket.

“There are also options for a future potential residential apartment development on part of the site, which currently consists of a vacant allotment and residential flats,” Mills said.

“Projects of up to eight storeys are prescribed under its zoning.

“Kurralta Village ... opened in 1969 and has long been the dominant sub-regional shopping centre in the catchment, servicing a large portion of the inner southwest of Adelaide.”