Greek Australian property mogul, Con Makris has just divested two shopping centres in Adelaide for a combined value of $110 million.
The rich lister, put the two malls on the market last July to wind back his retail real-estate footprint in South Australia.
Sydney property group Revelop acquired the landmark City Cross Shopping Centre in Adelaide’s Rundle Mall for $60 million.
The City Cross Shopping Centre transaction was the latest deal between the Makris Group and Revelop, after the Sydney group bought Newton Village Shopping Centre in Adelaide’s north-west for $35 million two years ago.
Meanwhile, investment firm Greenpool Capital, with backing from Qualitas, has bought North Adelaide Village, along with an adjoining site on O’Connell Street in a deal valued at $50 million.
The City Cross Mall fronts Rundle Mall, the city’s retail core as well as Grenfell Street, host to business and government tenants.
In 2013, the Greek-Australian businessman turned his gaze away from SA and decided to venture into the Queensland market when he bought the prestigious Marina Mirage on the Gold Coast built by the late Christopher Skase for $52 million.
Three years later, SA’s richest man made the decision to focus more on Queensland’s market and even moved his company’s headquarters there.
His decision was based on the promising prospects for “astronomical” growth that Brisbane and the Gold Coast promised at the time and the fact that the South Australian market was showing signs of stagnation.
“I will do whatever I want with my money and my investment portfolios. As a businessman I am not allowed to be emotional about the decisions I make.
The Adelaide market has slowed down significantly mainly because there is not enough population to stimulate the economy. South Australia needs at least an extra million people so things can start picking up.
At the same time, growth is already happening here (in Queensland) and we want to be on the ground to capitalise on that growth,” Mr Makris had told Neos Kosmos in a previous interview.
The Greek-born businessman was 16 years old when he decided to migrate to Australia from his little village Lygourio (in Peloponnisos) in the early 1960s.
Without speaking a word of English, he started working 15-hour shifts, seven days a week, at a foundry melting steel. A few years later, he started dabbling in supermarkets, fish and chip shops, chicken shops, and bakeries and slowly developed a retail portfolio.
Mr Makris, stepped back from the day-to-day operations of the Makris Group several years ago and put in place an independent advisory board to guide expansion but he still oversees all operations.