Macquarie Centre will be a "mall of the future"

18/07/2014
The first stage of the $440 million redevelopment of the AMP Capital Shopping Centres' Macquarie Centre in North Ryde will be the latest example of the mall of the future.
Once completed, the centre, in one of Sydney's busiest suburbs, will house two new-look department stores of Myer and David Jones plus some of the most successful international fashion brands.
AMP Shopping Centres’ chief executive Bryan Hynes is unable to confirm the names of the tenants currently but it's understood they will include Zara, Topshop, Topman and H&M.
Suggestions are that some of the stores may also have an attached homewares section, which would no doubt be popular given the large amount of redevelopment in the area.

Mr Hynes said the centre will be the showcase for the group’s $2.8 billion development pipeline, which includes major redevelopments underway at Pacific Fair on the Gold Coast and Perth’s Ocean Keys, and those proposed at Garden City, Booragoon and Karrinyup shopping centres, also in Perth.
The second stage of the project will be completed in time for the Christmas shopping period and, aside from the new department store formats, will provide a retail and leisure destination tailored to local residents and employees at the expanding Macquarie University and Macquarie Business Park.
According to Mr Hynes, the mall of the future will offer a wider range of food in a bigger area, and offer more public seating areas. Malls will be more about entertainment and communal space, which boosts revenue to offset slow sales in the traditional clothing and department stores.
The Macquarie Centre  will offer 21-metre ceiling screen that will keep shoppers up to date with new offers. Ambient advertsing will take on a bigger presence across the malls of the future.
In the UK's Westfield London and Stratford City malls, cars are on sale, and this could be the next trend in Australia.
Other malls, such as GPT’s Rouse Hill, will offer space to small businesses. There will also be creche facilities and other meeting areas.
The department stores will also offer ‘‘omni-channel’’ experiences, whereby shoppers will be offered a range of services by retailers. Scentre’s Miranda centre is already being redeveloped to offer a wider variety of services apart from clothing.
Macquarie has its popular ice rink and may now feature lockers and storage facilities for the click and collect shoppers - that is, people who buy online and collect at the mall. Australia Post is opening up more freestanding lockers to cater for the growth in internet sales.
The first stage of the mall will open as new data show the average retail vacancy rate for Australia decreased to 3.6 per cent in June 2014 from 3.8 per cent in December 2013, an average across all retail formats. Rents remained flat as tenants battled the late start to winter and ongoing spending concerns after the May federal budget.
JLL’s Australian head of retail, property & asset management Tony Doherty says the Sydney retail vacancy rate edged slightly higher to 2.4 per cent from 2.2 per cent, but it remains the tightest retail market nationally.
Mr Doherty said that overall, the mood in the leasing market is improving and conditions are easing following a challenging few years. Retailers and centre managers have been proactive in responding to the weaker retail trading conditions in recent years as well as to changes in shopping habits, and these strategies are now starting to show a positive payoff.

Fonte: smh.com.au

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