Westfield Group

Type	Public
Traded as	ASX: WDC
Industry	Property development Shopping centre management
Founded	1960 (Westfield Development Corporation lists on the Sydney Stock Exchange)
Founder(s)	Frank Lowy John Saunders
Headquarters	85 Castlereagh Street Sydney, Australia
Area served	Australia Brazil New Zealand United Kingdom United States
Key people	Frank Lowy, Chairman Brian Schwartz, Deputy Chairman Steven Lowy, Co-CEO Peter Lowy, Co-CEO
Revenue	A$4.05bn (2011)
Profit	A$1.53bn (2011)
Total assets	A$64.4bn (2012)
Employees	circa 4,000 staff worldwide (2010)[1]
Subsidiaries	Westfield Management Limited, Westfield America Management Limited, and others
Website	Westfield Group corporate homepage

The Westfield Group is an Australian shopping centre group undertaking ownership, development, design, construction, funds/asset management, property management, leasing, and marketing activities. The multinational company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and has interests in and operates one of the world's largest shopping centre portfolios with investment interests in 104 shopping centres across Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Brazil, encompassing around 23,000 retail outlets and total assets under management in excess of A$63 billion.^[2]

In 2010, the Westfield Group split 50% of its Australian and New Zealand assets into the Westfield Retail Trust, trading on the Australian Stock Exchange as ASX: WRT.

History [edit]

Westfield Group headquarters in Sydney

The Westfield Group had origins in the western suburbs of Sydney.^[3] The first development was named "Westfield Place", and opened in July 1959 in Blacktown.^[3] The name Westfield is derived from "west" related to the West-Sydney location, and "field" due to having located on subdivided farmland. The centre was opened by John Saunders and Frank Lowy.^[3]

The company was floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1960 and built another five centres in New South Wales before expanding into Victoria and Queensland in 1966-67.^[4]

The expansion into the United States began with the purchase of the Trumbull Shopping Park in Connecticut in 1977, and was followed by three centres in California, Michigan and Connecticut in 1980 and three centres in California, New Jersey and Long Island, New York in 1986.^[4] In 1994 Westfield joined together with General Growth and Whitehall Real Estate to purchase 19 centres for US$1 billion. Westfield seems to form clusters of centres around particular cities or within a small number of states. They built considerable holdings on the east coast and in California before expanding in the Mid-West. By 2005, the company owned centres in 15 US states.^[4]

In the 1990s, Westfield began a major expansion to New Zealand, where they mostly bought existing shopping centres of the Fletchers company, progressively rebranding them. Only in 2007, with Westfield Albany, has the company opened a fully new centre in the country.^[5]

In April 2012 it was announced that the Westfield Group will sell seven 'non-core' property assets to Starwood Capital Group for A$1 billion and one other property to an undisclosed buyer for A$147 million. The funds will be used to repay debt and invest in businesses offering higher return. The sales are expected to be completed by mid–2012.^[6]

Current operations [edit]

Westfield currently has interests in total assets worth A$58 billion, owning 119 shopping malls in four countries - Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States - with over 10 million square metres of retail space. It is the world's largest retail property group by equity market capitalisation. Despite the Westfield Group's asset dimensions, the Westfield Group is strongly controlled by the Lowy Family Group, including non-executive chairman, Frank Lowy, one of its founders.^[7] Lowy's two younger sons, Steven and Peter, are joint managing directors.

Australia [edit]

Having been established in Australia, with their original premises being at Blacktown, the Westfield Group continue to operate a large number of shopping centres in Australia. The largest Westfield shopping centres in Australia include:

Centre name	Location	Total retail floor area
		m2	sq ft
Westfield Fountain Gate	Narre Warren, Victoria	174,000 m2	1,872,920 sq ft
Westfield Chermside	Chermside, Queensland	144,351 m2	1,553,780 sq ft
Westfield Knox	Wantirna South, Victoria	142,244 m2	1,531,102 sq ft
Westfield Parramatta	Parramatta, New South Wales	137,269 m2	1,477,550 sq ft
Westfield Marion	Marion, South Australia	133,227 m2	1,434,043 sq ft
Westfield Southland	Cheltenham, Victoria	129,071 m2	1,389,310 sq ft
Westfield Bondi Junction	Bondi Junction, New South Wales	126,895 m2	1,365,890 sq ft
Westfield Doncaster	Doncaster, Victoria	120,000 m2	1,300,000 sq ft
Westfield Miranda	Miranda, New South Wales	108,316 m2	1,165,900 sq ft
Westfield Hornsby	Hornsby, New South Wales	99,830 m2	1,074,600 sq ft
Westfield Sydney	Sydney, New South Wales	93,000 m2	1,000,000 sq ft

United States [edit]

Since entering the United States market in 1977, Westfield has aggressively acquired, renovated and expanded many mall properties in order to draw wealthier consumers from longer distances. In May 2001, Westfield paid US$127 million for a 99-year lease on the retail area beneath the New York World Trade Center. In September 2003 the Westfield Group received US$17.3 million as a party in the insurance claim following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.^[8] On 18 February 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that Westfield, "the largest owner of shopping centres in California and the world", had agreed to acquire 15 stores from Federated Department Stores, all but three in southern California.^[9] Westfield has also financed large advertising campaigns to increase awareness of its Westfield brand. On 9 May 2006, Westfield announced the sale of 8 centres in the United States, in an effort to divest themselves of "non-strategic assets since they no longer fit within our investment criteria nor are they in our long-term redevelopment plans".^[10] Since then, the company disposed 5 centers, including four out of the remaining five "Westfield Missouri" malls, and the high end "Shops at 'Westfield' North Bridge."

New Zealand [edit]

Westfield Malls are by far the most numerous chain in New Zealand, with 9 of its 12 centres in Auckland including their largest development located in Albany.

United Kingdom [edit]

Westfield has an interest in ten shopping centres in England and Northern Ireland.

By far its most significant asset is Westfield's 50% partnership^[11] in the £1.6b^[12] Westfield London development in Shepherd's Bush, west London. The development included the construction of a new railway station for the London Overground and Southern services, and a new entrance for the London Underground station.

Westfield owns the Westfield Stratford City and also controls the Stratford City redevelopment project next to 2012 Olympic park in Stratford in east London, having acquired the 75% of the project that it did not already own.^[13]

Westfield is the developer behind the troubled Broadway shopping development in Bradford after acquiring Stannifer^[who?] in 2004.^[14]

On 9 October 2007 Westfield opened the £340m extension and refurbishment of Derby's Eagle Centre, which saw the shopping centre rebranded "Westfield Derby".^[15]

Westfield are currently reviewing plans with the Whitgift Foundation to rebuild the Whitgift Centre in Croydon in south London.^{[16][full citation needed]}

Relationship with tenants [edit]

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has investigated several disputes between the Westfield Group and its tenants. In 2004 the Commission found Westfield was abusing its market and commercial power in settling disputes with tenants, and forced Westfield to formally undertake to not engage in "Unconscionable conduct and intimidation" of tenants.^[17]

Also in Australia, Westfield fee structures and policies have also been criticised by retailers who operate in centres which have been taken over by the multinational company. Retailers have suggested that when centres are acquired there should be more cooperation between the new operators and existing tenants in bringing shops up to the corporate standards of The Westfield Group, and increases in rent (required to operate a shopping centre with high standards of fittings and services) should be staged with the required improvements in fittings.^[18]

Relationship with competition [edit]

In 2002, a competing shopping centre was lodged to Liverpool Council and subsequently built. The centre would be about 3 kilometres from Westfield Liverpool. In 2003 when the second stage was built, the Westfield Group allegedly sought help from the government in forcing its closure.^{[citation needed]}

Location images [edit]

• 

  Westfield Bondi Junction, Sydney

• 

  Westfield Burwood, Sydney

• 

  Westfield Chatswood, Sydney

• 

  Westfield Doncaster, Melbourne

• 

  Westfield Eastgardens, Sydney

• 

  Westfield Hurstville, Sydney

• 

  Westfield, Miranda, Sydney

• 

  Westfield Southland, Cheltenham, Melbourne

• 

  Westfield Parramatta, Sydney

• 

  Westfield Kotara, Newcastle

• 

  Westfield Carindale, Brisbane

• 

  Westfield, Belconnen, Canberra

• 

  Westfield Chermside, Brisbane.

• 

  Westfield Belconnen, Canberra

• 

  Westfield Fox Hills, Culver City, California

• 

  Westfield Newmarket, Auckland

• 

  Westfield Southcenter, Tukwila, Washington

• 

  Westfield London, in Shepherd's Bush, London

• 

  Boxing Day Shopping at Westfield London.

See also [edit]

• Australian real estate investment trust
• Centro Properties Group
• Lend Lease Corporation
• List of shopping centres in Australia
• Shopping property management firms
• Stockland

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Westfield Group

• Official website
• Westfield eCommerce platform developer site

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