Olympian Makes Waves Buying Back Noosa Shopping Centre

Property developer and former Olympian Mark Stockwell has bought back the Noosa Civic shopping centre on the Sunshine Coast for $250 million from QIC.

The former swimmer, who at 21 competed in the 1984 Olympics as part of Australian swimming’s “Mean Machine”, raised a property fund to back the purchase.

His Brisbane-based investment and development group Stockwell originally owned the property before selling it to QIC in 2012 for about $200 million. QIC Global Real Estate held Noosa Civic jointly in its flagship QIC Property Fund and the QIC Shopping Centre Fund.

The 30,000sq m centre is located 150km north of the Brisbane CBD, within the exclusive township of Noosa, an area renowned as one of Queensland’s and Australia’s premiere tourist destinations.

The centre occupies more than 31 hectares of land, of which more than 20 hectares is undeveloped, presenting the potential to further expand and develop the complex.

The move by Stockwell seems advantageous buying back into “one of the key sub-regional shopping centres on the Sunshine Coast”.

The Noosa Civic sits within a trade area home to 91,980, estimated to have a combined spending power of $1.3 billion, which is forecast to grow by an average of 4 per cent per annum to reach $1.9 billion by 2028.

“We are pleased to be able to bring Noosa Civic back into our portfolio,” Stockwell managing director Mark Stockwell said.

“This acquisition is key to the strategy of Stockwell Property Funds to identify existing, well-located, quality retail assets that we can expand and unlock the development potential for our investors.”

Stockwell has invested and developed shopping centres across Queensland.

Last February, Victorian construction and development firm Pellicano and publican family Zagame acquired the Poinciana Place Shopping Centre in Tewantin from Stockwell for $17.3 million on a record yield of 5.9 per cent for the Sunshine Coast.

The Noosa deal was brokered by Lachlan MacGillivray and Stewart Gilchrist of Colliers International and was struck on a yield of 6 per cent.

QIC managing director Michael O’Brien said the divestment of Noosa Civic, jointly held by the QIC Property Fund and the QIC Shopping Centre Fund, was in line with the client endorsed strategies for both funds.

O’Brien pointed to the deal as reaffirming shopping centres values which have been under pressure this year as big landlords, including Stockland, have trimmed centre values.

In May this year, QIC GRE divested its mixed-use asset currently under development at 80 Collins Street in Melbourne in a record deal for close to $1.5 billion.