They’re always new players on the block; they come and go. Once in a decade, even rarer perhaps in our business, one of these new players evolves into a ‘tour de force’. Having recently acquired Westpoint – the first 100% acquisition of a Big Gun in more than a decade – Haben has now established itself as one of Australia’s major players in the shopping centre industry…
The cover story in the Big Guns issue always features the most notable project/event/initiative of the year. This year is no exception; yet the story here is somewhat different as it marks the arrival of a new major player in our industry.
For some 15 years, Haben has been in the sights of industry watchers across Australia; at first as a new player in neighbourhood centres, but one with expertise, a canny knowledge of re-mixing, re-leasing, expanding and having the overall skill of turning poor or low performing centres into high-yielding assets.
For some 15 years, we have seen Haben acquire one, then two, then three… small neighbourhood centres, and then a graduation to sub-regionals, a progression to full-regionals and, ultimately, to Big Gun Centres. It’s a fascinating story and we’ll start at the beginning…
Harold Finger OAM was an experienced property investor; an architect and member of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. His son, Ben, a Bachelor of Business (Property) from Western Sydney University, had focused after graduation on property development. In 2009, they took the first two letters of Harold – Ha – combined them with Ben and formed Haben. One of their first acquisitions was a site in Newtown, on which, they planned to develop a major two-level Woolworths store. It’s worthwhile to look a bit further into this first venture because it set the tone for what was to come.
Woolworths was keen for the major supermarket. The local Council welcomed the development but when the DA was submitted, local residents objected to the scale of the proposal. What ensued was a lengthy delay and a subsequent reduction of the size; and thus, the first ‘small format’ Woolworths in Australia was born with 20 apartments overhead.
Why that is a significant detail is because it showed the two founders of Haben how difficult and complex a seemingly simple retail development could be. It illustrated how tight planning restrictions limited competition to existing retail developments. Why try and ‘trail blaze’ greenfield developments when existing centres could be improved? Most existing centres were anchored by food and services, and the mixed-use zoning of most retail sites provided an opportunity for upside, above and beyond that of a centre viewed as a single entity.
So, buying existing centres and expanding and/or improving them became the company’s focus. Both Harold and Ben learned the business from grass roots level. Ben personally managed their first three centres – Illawong Village, Station Plaza and Woodcroft Village – taking full control of the management, leasing and marketing. They were small, neighbourhood centres but with the acquisition of Seven Hills Plaza – their first ‘sub-regional’ – in late 2013, they began to build a team. Other sub-regionals followed; Jesmond Central in 2019 and then Caloundra Shopping Centre in 2020.
Yet it wasn’t just a team they were building, or a portfolio they were accumulating; a third dimension was that they were attracting the attention of some very seasoned investors. At the outset, they’d used their own funds and those of friends and family, people they knew, whom believed in their potential. This extended to one of the owners of Henroth Group with their purchase of Seven Hills Plaza. In 2019, a second partnership with Cartier Group saw the acquisition of Jesmond Central.
By the time the 2020s arrived, Haben, just 10 years old, was seen as a rising colt. In 2021, it partnered with the JY Group to buy The Pines Shopping Centre and Casey Central. By the end of 2021, it had proved itself a thoroughbred and, with the same partner, acquired its first Big Gun. In December of that year, for the princely sum of $402 million, they purchased Wollongong Central from The GPT Group.
So, by 2021, Haben had established itself as a competent and seasoned player in the Australian Shopping Centre business. Its team, still growing, attracted members who’d worked with the major landlords – Stockland, Scentre Group, AMP Capital, GPT, QIC and so on. Across the board, they’d been involved with most of the major centres in the country; Haben represented a fresh, young face; a growing company, an opportunity to get in at the beginning and to grow with it. By that year, they’d not only grown the company, managed the portfolio entirely ‘in-house’, but they’d also established an enviable track record of buying, improving and then selling centres. Haben’s achievement in this arena is simply phenomenal.
Haben has exited some of its early acquisitions including Illawong Village, Woodcroft Village, Doonside and Station Plaza with a staggering combined IRR of over 24.1%!
But that’s just a tiny part of the Haben story. What’s been bought and sold along the way, almost pales into insignificance, when compared to the power and potential of its existing portfolio.
As it stands, Haben currently holds more than $3 billion worth of assets under management, comprised of five neighbourhood centres, five sub-regionals, one regional and two super-prime regionals – Big Gun centres. These assets are spread out across eastern Australia; with four in Queensland, five in NSW and four in Victoria (see box below).
Haben manages more than 1,500+ leases covering a GLA of more than 440,000m2. The total rent roll exceeds $280 million annually, coming from a portfolio with an occupancy rate in excess of 98%. Its latest acquisition has established it as not just the largest privately-owned shopping centre company in Australia, but one now also attracting global investment funds.
As CEO Ben Finger told SCN; “We saw a void of buyers at the big end of town. At the same time, global capital investment in real estate is seeing a resurgence (after COVID) attracted to positive rent spreads. Westpoint in Blacktown, Sydney, came on the market; it’s the first Big Gun centre offering a 100% interest, to come on the market for over 20 years and the last time a major regional was developed was more than 20 years ago too. The prospects of any new ones in the near future are extremely remote as land is unavailable and building costs are exorbitant. The opportunity to acquire Westpoint was just too good to miss.”
For the first time, Haben partnered with a major global investor, Hines, and Westpoint came under their control for the purchase price of circa $900 million!
Westpoint sits in the fastest growing region in NSW. Surrounding the centre are several major projects both planned and underway; Walker Corporation, for example, has a planned development for a major town centre with an end value of $2 billion plus. The trade area population, still growing, is some 60% higher than the average and the opportunity for residential, commercial and other mixed-use development is enormous.
Following the acquisition of Westpoint, Haben has now established itself as a major player in the Australian Shopping Centre industry; it is one of the largest owners in the country. The company has grown 100% every two years over the past eight years, yet the focus is not on growth for growth’s sake.
As Ben Finger told us; “We’re opportunistic; recently we’ve benefited from larger redemptions forcing excellent stock on to the market. We’ll continue with that ‘opportunistic’ strategy; it’s part of our culture.”
When you consider an average IRR on exited assets being over 24%, ‘opportunistic’ looks to be a great strategy. Global investor Hines is already on-board. Undoubtedly, Haben’s record and its ‘major player’ status will attract other powerful and institutional funds. Haben has its own stake in the game; that’s an advantage when it comes to attracting major institutional funds.
The team at Haben is now in excess of 130 strong; and they’re fired up. Watch this space…
This exclusive cover story is published in the latest edition of SCN magazine.
Add comment