Ten former Masters stores will reopen as shopping centres before Christmas this year, with leading national retailers signed on.
Home Consortium, which purchased 61 former Masters centres from Woolworths last year, is behind the new large format retail proposition and chairman and ex-investment banker David Di Pilla said the new centres are a “best of brand retail proposition”.
The first five locations to be redeveloped are in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland will be transformed based on local demographics, consumer demand, existing retail supply and planning considerations.
Each Home Consortium centre will be developed around one of three distinct retail offers: daily needs; leisure, lifestyle and education; or homewares and electrical.
Retailers will include Coles, Woolworths and Chemist Warehouse in the daily needs category, Rebel, JB Hi-Fi and Supercheap Auto in leisure, and The Good Guys and Nick Scali Furniture in homewares.
Ten centres will open before Christmas.
“The key focus is a convenient, value for money retail experience,” Di Pilla said. “The leasing success and ongoing lease enquiries we have received reflect the fact that retailers have been able to work with us as a single developer/landlord to plan and secure their store roll-out and growth strategies across Australia’s key growth regions nationally.”
Home Consortium said it expects up to 8,000 retail jobs will have been created once all centres are open and trading.
The first five stores to open will be Rutherford and Penrith in NSW, South Morang in Victoria and Tingalpa and North Lakes in Queensland. Colliers has been appointed as leasing agent in these states.
Locations for the further five centres will be announced over the coming weeks.
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