Primewest has acquired two Woolworths-anchored centres from Charter Hall in Pemulwuy and West Ryde for its newly formed retail property trust.

The new trust, which was established under a new institutional mandate, already includes Spring Farm Shopping Centre south of Sydney.

Primewest Executive Chairman John Bond said the company had a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the institutional mandate and planned to acquire up to $300 million worth of assets in the “daily needs” trust, which already comprised "three well-priced and well-located shopping centres with excellent fundamentals".

At a glance:

• Primewest has announced the acquisition of two Woolworths-anchored centres from Charter Hall in Pemulwuy and West Ryde as part of its new Australian Daily needs/neighbourhood retail property trust.
• The trust already includes Spring Farm Shopping Centre south of Sydney.
• The company plans to acquire up to $300 million worth of assets for the trust.

“The Pemulwuy Marketplace in Sydney’s west is located on a 1.86 ha site and has a WALE of 8.3 years,” he said.

“It is in a tightly held, established location and offers strong medium to long term development potential as well as secure long term income from Woolworths and 15 specialty tenants.

“West Ryde is another strong performing centre with a WALE of 10.28 years across Woolworths and 22 specialty tenants.

“The centre is only 150 metres from the West Ryde train station and sits within the West Ryde Town Centre Revitalisation Scheme that is set to provide significant local planning initiatives.”

West Ryde Marketplace and Pemulwuy Marketplace are situated approximately 16km and 30km from the Sydney CBD respectively, with both assets comprising a flexible mixed-use zoning offering potential for long term development.

The centres were transacted by the JLL Retail Investments team of Sam Hatcher and Nick Willis.

Mr Hatcher said both centres represented an opportunity to "acquire key local landholdings within metropolitan Sydney, underpinned by a secure and resilient income stream which performed exceptionally well throughout the recent COVID-19 lockdown period".

Mr Bond said the trust was consistent with the company’s long term aim to build its network of institutional investors.

"There was already a solid pipeline of potential opportunities within the new retail trust, as well as other counter-cyclical opportunities across Australia and potentially overseas," he said.

"As the common denominator in all three of the recent retail acquisitions, Woolworths is so far proving to be a very strong and reliable tenant.

"The company features prominently in Primewest’s $1 billion retail assets portfolio, which is spread across all major states with the majority of properties being defensive, daily needs/convenience based centres."

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