LendleaseNEWS takes reins at retail hub
NATIONAL property group Lendlease has taken over from Dexus as new managers of Smithfield Shopping Centre.
Lendlease adds the retail centre to its existing stable of Queensland shopping centres including Cairns Central, Caneland Central in Mackay and Sunshine Plaza in Maroochydore.
Lendlease head of retail, David McNamara said it would be “business as usual” at the centre in the short term.
“We’re excited to be working with the existing team and stores customers know and love, to help make sure that every visit is a great shopping experience,” Mr McNamara said.
“We took over the management of Smithfield Shopping
Centre this week and our priority is to get to know the centre team, our tenants and our customers.
“At Lendlease, our vision is to create the best places – and that’s our goal for Smithfield Shopping Centre.
“We’ll do this by being actively involved in the local community, working with our retailers and by being bold and innovative.”
New owner of Holy Sheet! Sue Savage hoped the change would be a positive for her business.
“But I haven’t heard from them or seen them or spoken to them, but sometimes a change is good. We will have to wait and see,” she said.
“We would all be hoping that the foot traffic increases and it’s a really hard time to know how things are going to happen with COVID, so I suppose it’s a wait and see.
“It’s a hard time for them to come on over but it’s just like me opening up at this time as well. There is an unknown.”
In recent years some tenants had been critical of the way the centre had been managed by Dexus.
However it’s not known if shopping centre owners New South Wales Treasury Corporation (TCorp) acted on tenant concerns when switching managers.
The withdrawal of Dexus after 30 years of managing TCorp assets followed a “detailed competitive process”.
Stewart Brentnall, TCorp’s chief investment officer, said: “We are delighted to be forming this new partnership with Lendlease, who were selected following a detailed, independent request for proposal (RFP) process.”
TCorp is a State Government-owned body.