Charter Hall Group's Charter Hall Retail REIT bought the Salamander Bay Centre in New South Wales for A$174.5 million at a capitalization rate of 6.0%.

The company said its decision to execute an unconditional contract for the property supports its strategy of focusing more on larger, supermarket-anchored shopping centers, instead of smaller noncore assets. The strategy also entails Charter Hall performing value-add initiatives on properties through active portfolio management.

The shopping center in the Port Stephens region has a gross leasable area of 24,000 square meters. Its anchor tenants are Coles, Woolworths, Kmart, Aldi and Target Country, and it has about 64 more specialty tenants and three mini majors.

Charter Hall Retail REIT said it plans to fund the acquisition through a combination of existing and new debt facilities. It expects to repay the debt it amassed from acquisitions through proceeds from asset sales.

In May, the trust said it is planning a A$170 million divestment program, which later on was reportedly upped to A$280 million.

As of May 26, US$1 was equivalent to A$1.34.