Tainui offers stake in mega-mall

Hoyts and Farmers are among the major tenants at the mall, which also has 2500 car parks. Photo / Christine Cornege

Tribe puts stake in leasehold of Te Awa on market.

Hamilton mega-mall Te Awa, The Base has hit the market in a $100 million-plus deal which could be one of this year's largest property transactions.

Tainui Group Holdings is selling a half-share of the city's largest shopping centre, with a floor area of 8.5ha on a vast 31ha site at the country's largest single retail and entertainment destination.

John Schellekens and Brent McGregor of CBRE and DeutscheCraig's David McCallum are managing an expressions of interest campaign on behalf of Tainui.

The Te Rapa centre draws 7.5 million visitors annually and has a 6.25ha block of vacant land which can be developed.

Tainui Group chief executive Chris Joblin said proceeds from the sale of a 50 per cent stake would be reinvested in different asset classes in the Waikato and Auckland regions, in keeping with the company's strategy to diversify its asset base.

Only a leasehold interest is being sold, not freehold title, he emphasised.

Schellekens and McGregor said The Base produced about $21 million annual income from more than 200 retail tenancies and captured more than 30 per cent of retail spending in the area.

It has an enclosed mall of 31,000sq m including a Hoyts Cinema and a structural shell on the upper level can accommodate a further 8500sq m of retail space.

The sprawling centre, completed in 2011, also has 2500 carparks.

Major tenants include Farmers, The Warehouse, Mitre 10 Mega, Briscoes, Rebel Sport, Noel Leeming and Heathcote Appliances. The property is being advertised in Australia and Asia.

GIC, the Singaporean Government's sovereign wealth fund with more than US$100 billion ($152 billion) of assets under management, has been the biggest shopping centre buyer in New Zealand lately.

Last November, Scentre Group - which owns and manages Westfield - announced a $2.1 billion joint venture with GIC for five shopping centres in New Zealand.

They were Westfield Albany, Westfield Manukau, Westfield Newmarket, Westfield Riccarton and Westfield St Lukes.

On The Base deal, detailed information is being offered to interested parties under a confidentiality agreement and non-binding indicative bids are due by mid-November, with final bids by early February.