By ANNE GIBSON
St Lukes Mall in Auckland turns over the most money of the 12 malls owned by Australia's Westfield in New Zealand which together sold goods worth A$1.5 billion in a year.
Westfield Trust Management company secretary Simon Tuxen issued a May 14 presentation from Sydney on the first-quarter
operational review of the giant mall owner/manager in which he gave an overview of the past year in retail sales and leasing, and talked about planned projects.
The turnover of St Lukes in the year to March was A$225 million ($252 million), followed by Riccarton in Christchurch A$215 million, Glenfield A$169 million, Manukau A$166 million, Queensgate in Wellington A$128 million and WestCity in Henderson A$126 million.
Two Double Seven in Newmarket came next with A$113 million, Chartwell in Hamilton A$97 million, Pakuranga A$94 million, Shore City A$76 million, Downtown in Auckland A$58.9 million and Johnsonville A$34 million.
New Zealand's 12 malls sold goods worth A$1.5 billion (up 4.9 per cent) in the March year, compared with A$9.4 billion (up 5.4 per cent) in the Australian malls.
In Westfield's mall portfolio, the most money was spent at Sydney's Miranda - A$560 million worth of goods.
Tuxen cited the $55 million job to upgrade St Lukes in Auckland as one of the major projects. New specialty stores have opened there and cinemas are due to open next week.
But the $55 million spent on the Sandringham mall is dwarfed by Westfield's expansion in Australia, particularly the A$681 million it is spending on a mall at Bondi Junction in Sydney, a project due to be finished in June next year.
The redevelopment of Westfield's holding in Newmarket was still on the drawing board, Tuxen said, tagged "future investment projects", as are a new mall at Albany, the expansion of Manukau and further expansion of Pakuranga.
Despite launching a high-profile joint venture to develop the Newmarket site in August last year, Westfield has made no further announcements on its redevelopment of the old Mercury Energy site since. Auckland One and Westfield got backing from Mayor John Banks last year to develop the holding in a scaled-down version.
