What’s hot?
Scentre Group, Westfield’s New Zealand and Australian arm, has sold some of its malls here but has held onto its most profitable ones, and is refurbishing them, most obviously at its 277 Broadway mall in Newmarket, Auckland.
Kiwi Property Group has also plunged $233m into an expansion of its flagship Sylvia Park mall in Auckland, which has become the country’s first port of call for a number of exclusive new brands.
Regeneration in the West Auckland suburb of New Lynn also prompted Kiwi to redevelop the local LynnMall, the country’s first mall in the early 1960s. And a flurry of smaller malls have also changed hands recently.
Harford believes the malls that do survive will be much better at giving shoppers other reasons to visit. Many malls already have cinemas and he thinks they might even have nightclubs in future.
‘‘Compared to some other [international] markets, our malls tend to focus on shopping rather than entertainment and hospitality, and in the evenings, malls are often not open as late as they would be in other places,’’ he said.
‘‘But for some of the smaller malls, the future is likely to be hooked around a couple of larger tenants. Because those smaller centres are really convenience centres for people who aren’t able or willing to travel to some of the bigger destinations.
‘‘I think it would be a stretch to say there are any malls in New Zealand under immediate threat. But what you will see is a change of use over time.’’ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚ ❚