Leighton Properties | Ipswich CBD regional shopping centre redevelopment presents rare investment opportunity

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3 Ipswich CBD regional shopping centre redevelopment presents rare investment opportunity

Bradley Norris 3 Aug 2011

Leighton Properties and Ipswich City Properties Joint Venture today announced a rare opportunity with the launch of a seven-week Expressions of Interest (EOI) campaign (ending 22 September 2011) to find an investor for the CBD regional shopping centre development, as a component of the $1 billion Ipswich City Heart precinct.

Jones Lang LaSalle has been exclusively appointed to market the property and manage the EOI campaign.

Simon Rooney, Australian Head of Retail Investments, Jones Lang LaSalle, said the EOI campaign is expected to receive high interest from domestic and international institutional investors.

"It is rare to find an opportunity like this – a project of this scale and one that is in a strategic and rapidly growing area like Ipswich, will surely attract investors," Mr Rooney said.

"It is also an opportunity for an investor to acquire a custom, brand new regional shopping centre in one of Australia’s fastest growing population and economic growth corridors."

The City of Ipswich has been identified by the Queensland Government as a major location for the future outward expansion of the Brisbane metropolitan area. Major infrastructure projects such as the Ipswich Motorway Upgrade and the Springfield Passenger Rail Line are a part of the $17b investment by the Government to ensure this expansion is well supported.

Simon Rumbold, Director at Urbis, said the population of Ipswich’s trade area is forecast to more than double in the next 15 years to nearly half a million people. As a result, the retail spending for the next 10 years in the trade area is set to increase from $2.4b in 2011 to $4.5b by 2021.

"With such extraordinary annual growth rates – this retail project will be one of the top few new regional shopping centres to be developed in the country," Mr Rumbold said.

Andrew Borger, Executive Director at Leighton Properties, said the launch of the EOI campaign signals the start of an exciting new retail precinct for Ipswich.

"Leighton Properties and Ipswich City Properties have amalgamated four separate sites within the Ipswich CBD to deliver a development that is one of the largest urban renewal projects in Australia – a revitalisation master plan comprising of the regional shopping centre, three office tower developments, residential units and public amenities.

"The regional shopping centre has already attracted major tenant interest, accounting for more than half of the project’s 63,000sqm NLA," Mr Borger said.

"This significant tenant interest reflects confidence in Ipswich and the booming western corridor of South-East Queensland."

"The proposed three-level CBD regional shopping centre will rival any of its competitors in Brisbane’s south and west and we expect the final retail mix will exceed anything Ipswich has seen before both in terms of choice and quality."

The shopping centre EOI campaign follows the lodgement of the Development Application for the first commercial tower in June earlier this year.