Westfield Group

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The Westfield Group

Type	Public (ASX:WDC)
Founded	1960 (Westfield Development Corporation lists on the Sydney Stock Exchange)
Headquarters	Sydney, Australia
Employees	4,400+ staff worldwide
Website	www.westfield.com

The Westfield Group is a multinational company that owns shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Westfield shopping centres are typically branded with the name Westfield or Westfield Shoppingtown in their name.

The company pioneered the incorporation of entertainment and dining precincts into shopping centres.^{[citation needed]}

1 Current operations
- 1.1 United States
- 1.2 United Kingdom
2 History
3 Relationship with tenants
4 Locations
- 4.1 Australia
- 4.2 Internationally
5 Location images
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Westfield currently has interests in total assets worth A$41 billion, representing 121 shopping centres in four countries - Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom - with over 10 million square meters of retail space. It is the world's largest retail property group by equity market capitalization, yet it is still chaired by Frank Lowy, one of its founders.^[1]

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. It has also financed large advertising campaigns to increase awareness of its Westfield brand. On May 9, 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"^[2].

Westfield has an interest in 6 shopping centres in the UK. Additionally, Westfield is involved in the development of three further shopping centres.

It is a 50% development partner^{[citation needed]} in the £1.6b ^[3] Westfield London development in Shepherd's Bush, west London. The development includes the construction of a new railway station for the new London Overground service.
Westfield also controls the Stratford City redevelopment project next to 2012 Olympic park in London, having recently acquired the 75% of the project that it did not already own^[4].
Westfield is currently the developer behind the troubled Broadway shopping development in Bradford after acquiring Stannifer in 2004^[5].
On the 9th October 2007 Westfield opened the £340m extension and refurbishment of Derby's Eagle Centre, which saw the shopping centre rebranded "Westfield Derby" ^[6], and also has a £400million plan to expand and renovate Westfield Broadmarsh shopping centre in neighbouring Nottingham in the East Midlands.

It has been argued that Westfield's major competitive advantages lie in their specific skills and innovations in (i) property selection; (ii) redevelopment; (iii) branding and marketing; (iv) retailer relations; and (v) financing.^[7]

The Westfield Group had origins in the western suburbs of Sydney^[8]. The first development was named "Westfield Place", and opened in July 1959 in Blacktown, Sydney^[8]. The name Westfield is derived from "West" related to the West-Sydney location, and "field" due to having located on subdivided farmland ^[8]. The centre was opened by John Saunders and Frank Lowy^[8].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^[7]. The expansion into the US was quite slow. It began with the purchase of the Trumbull Shopping Centre 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^[7]. 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 still only own centres in 15 US states^[7].

In the 1990s, Westfield began a major expansion across the Tasman 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.^[9]

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has had 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.^[10]

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.^[11]

Main article: List of Westfield Group shopping centres in Australia

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 Group Annual Report 2006 identifies the largest locations in each state as:

Westfield Belconnen in the Australian Capital Territory,
Westfield Parramatta in New South Wales,
Pacific Fair Shopping Centre in Queensland,
Westfield Marion in South Australia,
Knox City Shopping Centre in Victoria, and
Westfield Carousel in Western Australia

For a list of all Australian locations, see List of Westfield Group shopping centres in Australia.

Main article: List of Westfield Group shopping malls

The Westfield Group operate extensively in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and in the United States of America.

Westfield Bondi Junction, Sydney	Westfield Burwood, Sydney	Westfield Chatswood, Sydney	Westfield Eastgardens, Sydney
Westfield Hurstville, Sydney	Westfield, Miranda, Sydney	Westfield Parramatta, Sydney	Westfield Kotara, Newcastle
Westfield Doncaster, Melbourne	Westfield Carindale, Queensland	Westfield, Belconnen, Canberra	Westfield Belconnen, Canberra
Westfield Fox Hills, Culver City, California	Westfield Newmarket, Auckland