Shopping Centers Today -> April 2004
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WESTFIELD IN $1.8B FIX-UP OF MALLS

BY IAN RITTER

Westfield America Trust is launching what it describes as the largest redevelopment pipeline in its history.

The company is already spending some $770 million on redevelopment and expansion projects currently under way and has an additional $1.1 billion worth of projects set to begin soon, Australian parent Westfield Holdings said in a February financial report. The company plans to get a dozen of these going this year.

The largest project by far is the $410 million expansion of Westfield San Francisco Centre in that city’s downtown. This joint venture with Forest City Enterprises is connecting Westfield’s existing mall to a building owned by Forest City that once housed the Emporium department store. When completed, some time in 2006, the 1.5 million-square-foot center will have the second-largest Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom department stores in the country.

Westfield Shoppingtown Franklin Park, Toledo, Ohio, is getting a $113 million renovation. The company is adding 238,000 square feet of retail, including a Dick’s Sporting Goods, to expand the mall to more than 1.3 million square feet. Westfield expects to finish the expansion by the second half of next year.

A $111 million expansion of Westfield Shoppingtown Wheaton (Md.), about 12 miles north of Washington, D.C., is under way. The mall is getting a new two-level Macy’s and some in-line tenants, bringing it to 1.3 million square feet. The firm expects to finish up there by next spring.

Meanwhile, an overhaul of Westfield Shoppingtown Santa Anita, near Los Angeles, continues apace, including the addition of 250,000 square feet to the 1.1 million-square- oot mall. An AMC theater, a Borders Books & Music and a Sport Chalet are among the new tenants. Westfield expects to complete the $98 million project this fall.

Future projects include Westfield Shoppingtown Topanga, Canoga Park, Calif. ($230 million); Westfield Shoppingtown Century City, Los Angeles ($127 million); and Westfield Shoppingtown Connecticut Post, Milford, Conn. ($120 million).

Meanwhile, the first custom-built, two-level Wal-Mart mall anchor is going up at Westfield Shoppingtown Parkway, in El Cajon, Calif., near San Diego. The 160,000-square-foot store is scheduled to open in the fall. The store will have a special escalator to which customers can attach shopping carts; they will be able to take the carts into the enclosed mall.

Westfield America is the third-largest mall owner in the United States, with 66 centers.

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