Blackstone Group LP is selling its Home HQ Artarmon homemaker center to a Sydney-based funds manager for more than A$140 million, The Australian reported.
The private equity firm is looking to double the money it invested in the property when it acquired the center in 2013 for A$72.5 million from a Charter Hall Group-managed fund. According to the report, Blackstone is nearing a deal with Fortius, which is looking to establish a new trust that will hold the property.
The fully occupied, 22,196-square-meter asset sits on a 1.6-hectare site that Fortius believes it can still redevelop and expand as the center has short leases, the Dec. 12 report noted. It lists Freedom, JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Snooze, Fantastic Furniture and Pillow Talk as tenants.
Blackstone's potential deal with Fortius follows a recently reported A$220 million divestment of its 1 Castlereagh Street property in Sydney to toymaker Early Light International Group. In September, it shelved the planned sale of A$3 billion of its Australian retail assets to preserve the portfolio's full optionality after continued repositioning and development.
