Cedar Woods to offer the retail centerpiece of Williams Landing for sale

2 February 2023

Stonebridge Property Group has been appointed to sell the Woolworths anchored Williams Landing Shopping Centre on behalf of Cedar Woods Properties Limited. Williams Landing Shopping Centre is the retail centrepiece of Cedar Woods’ Williams Landing Town Centre, a dynamic mixed-use superhub in the centre of Melbourne’s western suburbs. Designated as a Major Activity Centre, the 50-hectare town centre will have capacity for over 200,000 sqm of office and retail space with significant amenity.

Cedar Woods’ Chief Operating Officer, Patrick Archer said “Williams Landing Shopping Centre represents a premium asset located in the heart of a thriving mixed use town centre. Williams Landing is well served by key rail and road links and is located in a region that has consistently been one of the fastest growing in the country.”

“Williams Landing is a great success story for Cedar Woods. To date, we have delivered over 2,000 residential land lots, four apartment buildings, four commercial office buildings and the Woolworths anchored neighbourhood shopping centre. On completion, the Williams Landing Town Centre is projected to accommodate over 1,300 dwellings and over 200,000sqm of office and retail space.”

The high quality, convenience-based neighbourhood shopping centre is anchored by a full-line Woolworths plus a childcare centre, 30 specialty retail tenancies and 12 office suites, spread over a lettable area of 10,925 sqm with only one vacancy representing just 0.9% of lettable area.

The Centre is offered with 2.39 hectares of expansion land, providing significant scope for future development/expansion. The Centre’s Priority Development Zoning and significant total site area of 5.55 hectares provides superior outcomes on the site and creates a major landholding in the heart of a world class development precinct.

The Centre is optimally positioned next to major transport connections, with the $110 million Williams Landing station less than 500 metres away and the Princes Freeway adjacent. The public transport and freeway linkages provide direct access to the Melbourne CBD and the broader Western suburbs including Werribee and Geelong.

Stonebridge Property Group’s Justin Dowers and Kevin Tong will be offering the neighbourhood shopping centre via an expressions of interest campaign.

“Williams Landing Shopping Centre is unique, given it is now within a middle ring western suburb, with a significant development opportunity. Rarely do we see centres 20 km from The Melbourne CBD with over 2ha of Priority Development Zone land adjoining. They just never come up for sale.”

“When you’re at the centre, you can see multiple 5-6 level buildings directly opposite. This gives you confidence of what Williams Landing Shopping Centre can be in the future, it’s unlimited”. (Justin Dowers – National Partner)

“We witnessed a resurgence of Asian investment into the neighbourhood shopping centre market in the back end of 2022 through increased enquiry levels and bids. With China’s borders now open and the Year of the Rabbit commencing, we are already seeing an influx of Asian investors into Australia seeking opportunities to deploy their capital. Williams Landing Shopping Centre is expected to draw significant interest from the Asian investment front due to its diversified income profile and expansion land, offering safe fundamentals now and strong uplift in the future.” (Kevin Tong – Partner, Asia Practice)

The Williams Landing Shopping Centre offering comes off the back of a relatively low supply year for neighbourhood shopping centres with only 5 transactions in 2022. Only one of which transacted on market being the Arena Shopping Centre which sold for $50,000,000 representing a passing yield of 5.21%. This sale was handled by the Stonebridge Property Group team.