Punters will be able to shop until they drop this Christmas with no fewer than eight new major shopping centre and showroom projects in Perth due to be completed before the year is out.
Punters will be able to shop until they drop this Christmas with no fewer than eight new major shopping centre and showroom projects in Perth due to be completed before the year is out.
Among the largest to offer more shopping opportunities this year is the Perron Investments’ Gateways Shopping Centre in Success, which is expanding its current capacity of 10,494 square metres by 17,516sq m in time for August.
Other shopping centres undergoing significant expansions are the Lakeside Joondalup and Armadale Shopping Centres owned by the ING Retail Property Trust.
Building contractor Doric is due to complete a stage-one 7,250sq m expansion of the regional Joondalup Centre in December, before adding a further 21,800sq m by September 2008.
Doric is due to finish the stage-two 13,218sq m expansion of the Armadale centre in January 2008 which will be anchored by Target.
Fellow listed developer Stockland is also currently putting the finishing touches on stage one of its Baldivis Shopping Centre, delivering 6,800sq m of retail space onto the market in Perth’s fast growing south-eastern corridor.
Meanwhile, bulky goods developments are gathering pace with almost 150,000sq m of space under construction in WA, despite market yields firming to 6.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2007, according to Savills research.
Private developer Michael Hodgson, owner of the Nookenburra Hotel in Innaloo, is redeveloping the hotel’s car park at 401 Scarborough Beach Road into an 18,000sq m bulky goods centre.
Craft and home interiors supplier Spotlight have already pre-committed to 4,500sq m on the ground floor, while its adventure store division Anaconda has leased over 3,000sq m of space above it.
The entire complex is expected to be completed by December.
Fans of Swedish kit-furniture supplier IKEA can rejoice in early 2008, when the owners of the WA and SA franchises Lex Group open a new retail store on Ellen Stirling Boulevard in Innaloo early next year.
The $65 million, 30,000sq m superstore is part owned by Fabray, a family company of Mirvac director Adrian Fini, who is understood to be considering additional showroom and office space on the site
IKEA’s existing site on Scarborough Beach Road recently changed hands for an undisclosed sum and industry sources predict the prime site will eventually be home to a new bulky goods showroom and modest office space.
Burgess Rawson retail director Cameron Hopkins said the bulky goods market was extremely buoyant at present, with many projects gaining pre-commitment before starting construction.
“Shopping centres are all strictly zoned and development has been very restricted. Sites for bulky goods retailing are a little easier to find, although the various council town planning scheme anomalies make it interesting for leasing agents,” he said.
Mr Hopkins said leasing bulky good space was at times a challenge as some retail tenants that had pre-committed to new developments were finding themselves accepted in some local government areas and not others due to restrictions on what they could sell.
Despite some planning barriers, he said local councils were generally enthusiastic about retail developments and were right behind a push for more main street-style retailing, which sought to open the traditional enclosed store format out into the street.
A case in point is Multiplex and Hawaiian’s $200 million Claremont Arcade Shopping Centre, which will have 30,000sq m of retail space over two levels and an active retail streetscape upon completion in 2008.
The refurbishment and expansion of the existing shopping centre, which will be anchored by David Jones, also includes 102 residential apartments, 600sq m of commercial office space and 1,500 car bays.
In the Perth CBD, developers are finding it difficult to make street-level retail a point of difference, with almost all the proposed office projects having some component of retail space within them.
Pivot Group and the Industry Superannuation Property Trusts’ Century City office development is literally grounded by retail at 100 St Georges Terrace, making best use of the former Toys’R’Us site with a $170 million four-storey shopping precinct of high-end fashion and gourmet food retailing.
The retail floors are expected to be completed by Easter 2008.
Other city retail projects which will keep stock levels buoyant and shoppers active after 2009 include the 140 William Street project by the state government, with plans for 7,000sq m of retail space and Raine Square with almost 4,000sq m.
Saville Australia’s Capital Square project will deliver 10,000sq m of retail and commercial space by 2011, with an extra 3,500sq m of space to come online at the redeveloped Wesley Arcade during the period.
