Melbourne-based fund manager Fawkner Property has acquired Cairns Central for $390 million, according to property firm CBRE, with the firm's head of retail capital markets Simon Rooney overseeing the deal.
The centre is home to over 50 fashion brands, including Lorna Jane, R.M.Williams, Forever New and Honey Birdette, as well as nine jewellery stores, and three department stores - Kmart, Myer and Target.
The Cairns acquisition closely follows Fawkner’s Midland Gate Shopping Centre acquisition in Perth with PAG - Australia’s largest retail transaction in 2023, which settled last month for $465 million - as well as Settlement City Shopping Centre in Port Macquarie for $107 million.
The Cairns deal represents Queensland’s largest regional shopping centre transaction since November 2017, when AMP took out a 50% stake in Indooroopilly Central for $800 million from CSC.
According to CBRE, the latest sale comes as investors continue to re-shift their investment focus to the regional shopping centre market.
“As the fundamentals continue to reset for high-quality retail assets and the sector moves into a clear growth phase, domestic private capital and increasingly offshore institutional investors, are strategically teaming up with specialist domestic managers like Fawkner Property and are proactively engaging and seeking out high-quality regional shopping centre opportunities prior to this window closing,” Rooney said.
“Fawkner Property securing two such opportunities at Midland Gate Perth and Cairns Central demonstrates their strategic and counter-cyclical investment approach.”
CBRE expects a further $1 billion in retail transactions to go under contract or exchange in the first quarter of 2024.
Fawkner Property has so far acquired $1.7 billion in assets since 2021, including Midland Gate ($465 million) and The Square Mirrabooka in Western Australia ($195 million), Stockland Traralgon in Victoria ($84.5 million) and Mount Pleasant Centre ($162.5 million), Stockland Cairns ($146 million) and Stockland Gladstone ($139 million) in Queensland and Settlement City, Port Macquarie ($107 million).