- Sentinel Property Group has sold the Geraldton Homemaker Centre to Harvey Norman
- This comes after the property group's move to reduce their retail footprint
Harvey Norman has recently bought the Geraldton Homemaker Centre from Brisbane-based property investment firm, Sentinel Property Group for $28.25 million.
This comes after Harvey Norman reported their profits soared, and now this is a clear move to capitalise on the pandemic driving foot traffic to home-focused retail.
The property was established in 2006 and contains a total of 15,948 square metres of lettable area. It currently has 12 tenants including Spotlight, The Good Guys, Forty Winks and Godfreys.
Sentinel acquired the centre for $27.3 million in 2015 and it was the group’s first WA investment, said its executive chairman and chief investment officer, Warren Ebert.
The property group have now moved to reduce its retail footprint.
“The decision to sell was based on Sentinel’s strategy of buying at an opportune time and then selling based on our view of the market,” Mr Ebert said.
In the past 12 months, Sentinel has sold City West Plaza in Melbourne’s Sunshine North for $39 million to Assembly Funds Management, a fund backed by Westfield founders the Lowy family, and the Riverdale Shopping Centre in Dubbo NSW for $20.17 million.
“Retail made up 61.34 per cent of the Sentinel portfolio in June 2015, but this has reduced to 28.1 per cent of the portfolio by February 2021,” Mr Ebert said.
Sentinel’s sole remaining asset in WA is the Port Hedland Boulevard shopping centre, which it bought for $17.6 million in 2016.
