Regional Retail

Whilst the focus can lean towards South East Queensland, the latest Retail Series breakfast highlighted our regional centres, and the important role they play in local communities.

Our guest speakers Natalie Myatt, Regional Manager Retail, Queensland – Stockland, Mark Barrett, General Manager Retail Development – Dexus and Scott Douglas, Investment General Manager, QIC Global Real Estate provided presentations on the investment case, design vision, current success and future growth plans on the following shopping centres:

Stockland Hervey Bay
The Willows Townsville
Grand Central Toowoomba

Kicking off the presentations was Natalie Myatt, who spoke about the excitement and anticipation from the community in the lead up to the opening of Stockland Hervey Bay. This excitement was fostered by the project team who made a conscious effort to engage with the community about the project. This included enlisting residents of the adjoining retirement village to become ambassadors.

This engagement resulted in a 40 year regional record opening day, of over 6,000 transactions and 40,000 units sold. Stockland Hervey Bay has brought 29 new retailers to the Fraser Coast including Kmart and Harris Scarfe. The future growth plans for the centre include stage 2 that provides 15,000m2 of additional retail for which a Development Approval has been secured.

Following Natalie’s presentation, the attention shifted to Townsville with Mark Barrett providing a presentation on the current redevelopment of the Willows Shopping Centre. Mark set the scene by explaining the headline statistics of Townsville, including the diversified economy and population growth rate of 2.4%. These fundamentals, along with the location of the centre in a growth corridor, were key drivers behind the decision to redevelop.

Mark explained that the biggest challenge facing the redeveloped centre will be securing tenants. This task is made harder with the breadth of retail centres in Townsville. Phase 1 works involve the expansion of Woolworths, and a fashion mall anchored by Harris Scarfe’s reintroduction into the Townsville market. Phase 1a that is currently under planning includes an expansion of Coles and a restaurant precinct that will include outdoor dining options.

Rounding out the presentations was Scott Douglas, who spoke about the $0 million redevelopment of Grand Central Toowoomba. Scott provided a detailed explanation of the economic drivers for Toowoomba, along with the favourable location, limited competition and trade performance of the existing centre. However, with limited retail options available, Toowoomba residents are prepared to spend their money elsewhere.

The redeveloped centre aims to capture this spend by bringing together food, fashion, entertainment and lifestyle to the heart of Toowoomba. This will include the introduction global, Australian and existing brands, along with dining options that embrace the quality produce available on the Darling Downs, and a new community space delivered in the form of a town square. Overall the transformation will deliver 90,000m2 of leasable floor space, new major and mini major tenants, 2000 new car parking spaces and 280 plus specialty stores.

Following the presentation our guest speakers were joined on stage by Andrew Hogg, National Director – Retail of Savills Project Management and Chair of the Property Council’s Retail Committee who moderated Q&A panel session. Topics discussed included the benefits to local communities from investment in regional shopping centres, the threat of online retail, and foreign capital.

The Property Council would like to thank our guest speakers Natalie, Mark and Scott for providing informative presentations. Special thanks must also go to our moderator Andrew Hogg as well as joint sponsors Yardi and Urbis.

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