Westfield Retail Trust has confirmed the commencement of a $435 million redevelopment of Westfield Miranda in Sydney.
Westfield Miranda is a super regional shopping centre located in the suburb of Miranda, about 30km south of the Sydney CBD, and is jointly owned by Westfield Retail Trust (25 per cent), Westfield Group (25 per cent), and Dexus Wholesale Property Fund (50 per cent).
The centre is already one of the strongest performing shopping centres in Australia on a total sales basis, and is one of the trust’s best performing shopping centres, located in a trade area that contains more than 380,000 people.
Artist impression, source: Westfield
Westfield Miranda currently comprises around 108,000sqm of gross lettable area (GLA) and includes department stores David Jones and Myer, as well as Target, Big W, Woolworths, Franklins, Aldi, Toys R Us, and a Greater Union cinema complex.
The centre also has nine mini-major tenancies and about 330 specialty retailers. It is estimated the $435 million project will increase the centre by around 19,000sqm to a total of 127,000sqm of GLA.
The redevelopment of the centre will include a new Woolworths and upgraded Big W, a fully refurbished Myer department store, 10 new mini-majors, and 100 new specialty retailers.
Artist impression, source: Westfield
It will also include a new dining, leisure, and entertainment precinct incorporating a 10 screen multiplex Event cinema.
In April, Westfield Retail Trust confirmed the commencement of a $200 million redevelopment of Westfield Garden City at Mt Gravatt in Brisbane, as part of its $12 billion global development strategy.
Artist impression, source: Westfield
Domenic Panaccio, MD of the Westfield Retail Trust, said “The redevelopments at both Miranda and Garden City at Upper Mount Gravatt, are located in areas with strong demographics and growth potential, and reflect the Trust’s strategy of investing in our properties to increase the quality of the portfolio as well as returns to securityholders over the long term”.
The trust’s share of the project cost is approximately $109 million with a forecast yield in the range of 6.5 per cent to seven per cent.
The completion of the project is anticipated to occur in the fourth quarter of 2014, with the new cinemas to open in mid 2015.
