GPT Group has sold its 50% stake in Melbourne’s key Northland Shopping Centre for $385 million to billionaire Nick Andrianakos.
The GPT Wholesale Shopping Centre Fund had acquired that stake for $496 million in 2014 from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, before now offloading it to Andrianakos.
The Andrianakos Property Group will now join Vicinity Centres as co-owner of the landmark asset.
The 98,000 sqm Northland property is anchored by Myer, JB Hi-Fi, Kmart, Target, Aldi, Coles, Woolworths and Hoyts Cinemas, as well as more than 200 specialty stores. Occupancy is reported to be at 99.4%.
In 2023, the centre’s fashion malls and the outdoor entertainment and dining precinct were upgraded, boosting annual sales to over $660 million.
The property has significant development potential, with a masterplan for a 30-year staged development and the site could hold 2,300 apartments and office towers in future.
Andrianakos, dubbed the Petrol King, made his fortune through the Milemaker chain of petrol stations which he sold to Caltex in 2016 for $94 million, while retaining the real estate.
Before making several high-profile acquisitions of shopping malls, Andrianakos made offers for office towers including 60 Flinders Street in Adelaide that was picked up for $101 million, Brisbane’s 19 Lang Parade which was bought for $85 million in 2020 and 50 Flinders Steet that was purchased for $175 million that same year.
Andrianakos has struck multiple deals with Vicinity as he entered into the shopping mall business. Last year, he acquired a 50% stake in the Elizabeth City Centre, an 80,000 square metre major mall in Adelaide’s north, from Vicinity for $170 million.
In the year before that, he bought a half-stake Broadmeadows Central, located less than 10km from Northland, from Vicinity for $134.5 million.
In 2022, he acquired a $135 million-plus half stake in Adelaide’s Colonnades mall from Perth property magnate Stan Perron.
