Charter Hall Group will acquire Bay Village Shopping Centre in NSW.

Charter Hall will pay for $164 million for the centre, located in the central coast town of Bateau Bay, reflecting an eight per cent capitalisation rate.

The property will be held within a newly established unlisted wholesale trust (RP2) owned by a global high quality institutional partner who will hold an 80 per cent equity interest with the remaining 20 per cent equity (amounting to $19.5 million) held by the Charter Hall Property Trust co-investment portfolio. 

Bay Village Shopping Centre spans 29,162sqm and is a modern sub-regional shopping centre. It was expanded and refurbished in 2005 and 2006 andis anchored by Woolworths, Coles, Kmart, and Aldi Supermarket together with mini majors Best & Less, Dick Smith, and the Reject Shop.

Charter Hall’s joint MD, David Harrison, said: “We are pleased to add Bay Village Shopping Centre to Charter Hall’s managed retail portfolio and to partner with a high quality global institutional investor at this point in the cycle. 

"Charter Hall will continue to source investment grade assets in retail, office and industrial sectors and leverage its in-house property skills across all areas of the business to deliver returns for its investors.”

The acquisition of the Bay Village Shopping Centre, due to be completed in late August 2012, increases the value of Charter Hall’s managed Australian retail property portfolios to $2 billion, with around 2500 tenants and circa 780,000sqm of lettable area.