Geelong: Bellarine Village Shopping Centre sold to private investor

Bellarine Village Shopping Centre

Bellarine Village Shopping Centre at Newcomb. Picture: Mark Wilson

A Newcomb shopping centre has been sold for the second time in three years.

Bellarine Village was sold off-market after the owners previously tested the market as the first coronavirus pandemic lockdown hit in 2020.

Property documents show Yunlong Lu used the purchaser’s contract to place a caveat on the Bellarine Highway property on March 11.

Bellarine Village Shopping Centre

Bellarine Village Shopping Centre. Picture: Mark Wilson

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The property was traded off-market for a purchase price understood to be $38m, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review.

The 10,439sq m neighbourhood centre last sold to Westrent Properties in mid-2018 for $36.5m.

Bellarine Village is anchored by a full-line Woolworths supermarket and a Dan Murphy’s outlet, as well as 15 specialty shops, including Australia Post, The Reject Shop and NAB, and a Caltex petrol station and Hungry Jacks restaurant on separate pad sites.

There are several vacant tenancies within the complex, however the sector has remained in demand as it derives most of its income from major supermarkets and retailers of a non-discretionary nature.

The Woolworths lease expires in 2025 and the grocer has eight further five-year options.

The shopping centre was previously listed for sale last April, but withdrawn from sale as the coronavirus pandemic hit.

JLL’s Stuart Taylor and Tom Noonan had that listing.

It’s the second major retail sale this year after a stand-alone Woolworths supermarket at was traded for $25.1m to a private investor from Melbourne.

Stonebridge Property Group’s Justin Dowers, Kevin Tong and Philip Gartland negotiated the sale for the private family that developed the supermarket in 2004.