Tag Archives: Westfield Group

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International players have role in Westfield’s new strategy

By Justine Griffin for the Herald-Tribune

What do you do when faced with the imminent threat of being dethroned as the regional shopping centers?

Une option est de ramener les joueurs internationaux qui exciteront vos clients fantaisie.

(That’s roughly: “One option is to bring in international players that will tickle your customers’ fancy” — for those of you who don’t parler français).

Westfield Group — the Australian company known globally for malls and lifestyle centers, and known here for its ownership of the Southgate and Sarasota Square malls — plans to do just that: Reel in more international tenants as it continues to transform its Southwest Florida properties to better compete with the new $315 million Mall at University Town Center.

“Sarasota customers should expect to see some larger international names come to the properties real soon,” said Greg Miles, Westfield’s chief operating officer. “We aim to create lifestyle centers now, multifaceted places that offer a variety of shopping opportunities — not just malls or grocery stores anymore.”

Some of Southgate tenants have already been poached by the Mall at University Town Center, a project under development at University Parkway and Interstate 75 by Michigan’s Taubman Centers and Manatee County-based Benderson Development.

But Westfield has formed relationships with a new group of retailers — high-end brands from Europe that have few or no stores in the United States just yet — in hopes that these will fill vacancies left by brands like Gymboree, Saks Fifth Avenue, Pottery Barn, Express and others.

It would not be the mall owners’ first attempts to show some international flair.

Read more here.

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Marketplace shifts and the rise of a new, high-end competitor put a company’s powers of reinvention to a Sarasota test

In Southwest Florida, at least, Westfield Group is likely in the fight of its life.

The company isn’t just facing the challenges of a growing demographic for whom the traditional mall is not the center of the retail universe. Its Southgate and Sarasota Square complexes must soon confront the Mall at University Town Center, a $315 million project on University Parkway that promises to shift luxury retail gravity to a new hub.

Already, the project by Manatee County’s Benderson Development Co. and Michigan-based Taubman Centers Inc. has claimed several of Southgate’s tenants. Indeed, the Mall at University Town Center’s key anchor, Saks Fifth Avenue, will close its 40,000-square-foot store in Southgate when the new mall opens in October.

Others jumping ship include Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, Gap, Express and Gymboree.

But Westfield, a 55-year-old Australian company whose roots stretch back to the suburbs of Sydney, has shown a remarkable ability to adapt to changing times, fierce competitors and new geographies.

The global shopping center manager — it now has more than 100 malls scattered around the globe — has developed a knack for remaking its properties, whether by redeveloping existing centers to fit a different mold, or adding unlikely tenants like Costco or Target to fill vacancies and draw new customers.

“Westfield has been very innovative in the past, and brought new life into old formats,” said Jeff Green, an analyst with Phoenix-based Jeff Green Partners who closely traffics the retail trade in Southwest Florida.

It will need that inventiveness to preserve regional shopping destinations that have served Sarasota County for decades.

Read more here.