The Shopping Centre industry is driven by people. It’s the skills and expertise of the people that manage, develop and evolve shopping centres for their communities that creates this great industry. Shopping Centre News profiles a range of interesting people from the industry each week. This week we speak to Jeremy Prestoe, Head of Retail (NSW) for JLL. Jeremy is well known in the industry and was the successful owner of Just Projects for 17 years.
What is your current role and main responsibilities?
Head of Retail (NSW) for JLL. I oversee all of the shopping centre management and leasing teams for properties under JLL management in NSW/ACT on behalf of independent owners.
How did you get in to this industry?
It’s a great story. It has always been about retail for me. I was poached from McDonald’s marketing team to start as a Marketing Manager for Lendlease at Bankstown Square.
Tell us a little bit about your career
After a short period at Bankstown, I was offered the opportunity to take up the Centre Management role at Erina Fair on the Central Coast. From that time, I commenced an MBA and started on a career track to Management. After seven years with Lendlease, I left to start my own company called Just Projects, providing Centre Management staff and teams to owners and managing agents all over Australia. In early 2017, I joined JLL in NSW as the Head of Retail Leasing and was recently promoted to Head of Retail (NSW).
What is your most memorable moment of your career?
There are so many to choose from in a lively retail industry – I find it perpetually stimulating and never dull. I do recall one story that most Lendlease people will relate to.
I had been with Lendlease about four months when we had our ‘Grey Hair’ in the PCG (Neville Harpham) lean around, look me in the eye and tell me that my whole marketing launch plan for the new food court was “a waste of time and full of unneccesary visual garbage”. I argued my case with conviction to learn later that this was a ‘sink or swim’ opportunity to test my mettle. Great learning opportunity – and most current and previous Lendlease employees will tell you that this was a tried and true method, dating back to the founder Dick Dusseldorf, to build a strong management layer each of whom had the confidence to advocate their postion. This is a skill I have carried with me since these early days.
What makes a great Head of Retail management?
Someone who truly believes in their people, someone who leads by example, genuinely helps, removes blockages in the working environment, empowers the team and makes sure that rewards flow.
What do you think makes a successful shopping centre?
Today, as always, it’s about the mix, the design and a true understanding of the assets’ positon in the shoppers trip and life. A neighbourhood centre has a different brief to a super regional – and the positioning of each will dictate precincting, dwell times, basket size, parking acces and placement, and the list goes on.
Menai Marketplace
Which in your opinion is the best example of a good shopping centre, retail precinct or place?
Again, there are so many terrific examples to choose from and, as Australia is a mature market, a lot of brain power goes into the process to get this right across Australia. I have always been a strong advocate of the original Marketplace model that we know today as sub regionals. An example is Menai Marketplace. A single level centre, anchored by Big W and Woolworths with loads of on grade parking and a healthy mix of specialties that support the Major’s offer. There is currently a larger discussion about the future of these assets and the DDS market – but for the last 30 years this has been a sound model generating strong yields year on year.
What are some of the trends you are seeing in the industry?
Retail is a very organic beast and we all know we are seeing more changes in recent years than over the previous twenty. Having said that, we don’t really know where they are all going to land, and there is great speculation and crystal ball work on the impacts of online retailing and how this will affect DDS and Department Store sales. But it’s a resilient asset class – it means we just shift our attention to the emerging trends in retail – solar arrays, waste management and recycling, leisure precincts medical precincts etc.
What advice would you give to someone starting in the industry?
Work hard, add value, ask how you can help, get a clear picture from your manager about what success looks like – and aim for that.
Spending time with his big family is what Jeremy likes to do on weekends
What do you do in your leisure time to de-stress?
I have a big family with 5 kids – so basically I am Uber-Dad all weekend… but seriously we like to take fun family holidays and we always have one in the pipeline so we can all count down and look forward to it. On a selfish note, I also like to get away for a week on a Scuba Liveaboard each year (this year Papua New Guinea).
One of Jeremy’s hobbies – Scuba Diving
What has been your hardest career decision?
Closing my business of 17 years.
What do you love most about your job?
The people. I call it a a big/small industry.
What do you least like about your job?
Meetings without a defined purpose.
What motivates you?
Growth and creating genuine opportunities for a strong and loyal workforce.
What’s your favourite retailer and why?
Australian Geographic Shop – I can spend an hour in there…
Do you like shopping?
Believe it or not, it’s not my thing!
What is the single most important quality you need to possess to be in this industry?
Patience (and maybe a little bit of multi-tasking ability…)
Want to be profiled? Contact Belinda Daly belinda@shoppingcentrenews.com.au
