Savills Investment Management has partnered with Australian-listed Elanor Investors to launch a fund to hold a shopping mall in Queensland purchased from Blackstone for A$145m
Australian domestic institutions and wholesale capital partners have co-invested in the single-asset fund, alongside Savills IM.
Savill IM’s head of Australia, Greg Lapham, said the group “looked forward” to unlocking value from the centre, known as Clifford Gardens, “combining our offshore retail experience” with Elanor’s proven ability to reposition assets of this type.
Elanor’s co-head of real estate, Michael Baliva, said Clifford Gardens had significant value-add potential given the Toowoomba region’s substantial infrastructure projects in progress, and other locational attributes.
“Additional opportunities existed to unlock value from the under-utilised land on an extensive nine-hectare site,” he said. “Our strategy is focussed on enhancing both the income and capital value of the property for our capital partners.”
Glenn Willis, Elanor’s chief executive, said the firm had recently successfully repositioned a shopping centre at Auburn, in Sydney’s inner west.
“Importantly, this (latest) acquisition in partnership with Savills IM continues to demonstrate the broadening of Elanor’s offshore institutional capital partnerships,” he said.
Clifford Gardens was part of three centres which Blackstone purchased from Vicinity Centres in 2016 for A$613.3m.
