Stride Property Group has been granted approval by the Overseas Investment Office to acquire the Westfield Queensgate shopping centre, Wellington, and the Westfield Chartwell shopping centre, Hamilton.

The acquisition will be made through Stride’s wholesale investment vehicle, Diversified NZ Property Trust.

Stride announced in November 2015 that Diversified had entered into an agreement with entities owned by Scentre Group to acquire the shopping centres in a deal worth $445 million.

Stride Property Group was created in July 2016 following a strategic demerger of the company’s real estate investment management operations and its large format retail assets from its property investment business.

“On completion of the sale, Stride will take over management of the shopping centres under its 10-year contract to manage the Diversified Fund,” said Peter Alexander, chief executive, Stride.

On settlement day, new-look branding will be unveiled at each of the centres.

“The new branding has been specifically designed to incorporate the unique aspects of each of the local communities, and we’re excited to see the response from visitors to the centres.

As with all of our properties, we’re looking forward to working closely with our local team of management, staff, tenants and suppliers to make sure we get to know our customers and the wider community well, so we can continually enhance the overall experience at the centres over time,” said Alexander.