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. In this special ‘Movers & Shakers’ feature published in SCN magazine, we speak with nine industry leaders about their career journey and experiences, and discuss some of the key trends and major challenges facing our industry. Here, we profile Thomas Rethati, Development Director at Frasers Property Australia.
Tell us about your current role and main responsibilities
As Development Director at Frasers Property, my current remit is the oversight of our retail development pipeline in Victoria. We have various retail town centre-style projects at different stages of development, which will serve our residential communities, including a major new mixed-use development at Yarraville.
At present, most activity is occurring at Mambourin Marketplace. Set to be the heart of our new Mambourin community, the team and I are currently focused on delivering a curated mix of dining choices, shops and important services including health and wellbeing providers, so residents can access everything they need day-to-day while enjoying a great social experience.
How did you get started in property development?
I started in development more than ten years ago, first working on land subdivisions before joining Woolworths and cutting my teeth in retail property. It was a great learning experience, understanding supermarket metrics and how these translate in a neighbourhood centre context. Then, about six years ago, I joined Frasers Property Australia.
This was an important career progression, as I became exposed to retail and its role from a true mixed-use perspective. The first major mixed-use project I became involved with was Ed.Square Town Centre, in Sydney’s south west.
It’s an experience that reinforced the importance of retail not only to serve the needs of local residents, but also as a core component in the creation of strong, cohesive communities. I gained valuable planning, leasing, construction and development management experience, which helped me progress to a senior leadership position.
Do you have any career highlights, proudest moments, favourite projects?
Being involved through the creation of Ed.Square Town Centre, and witnessing how it has become the natural heart of the community, has been deeply satisfying. We put a great deal of place-making emphasis through the design process to ensure the Town Centre would become a true mixed-use precinct, with each use complementing the others. The community aspects, from Eat Street to the playground, to the train station integration and the curated retail and entertainment mix, were all subject to thorough research, extensive feedback and plenty of internal consideration. To see it all come to fruition, and for the Town Centre to fulfil the role in the community we envisaged, is really rewarding.
Mambourin Marketplace, VIC
What are some of the major challenges facing our industry?
Everyone in development understands the challenges associated with construction and materials costs at present. These challenges are especially evident in a mixed-use sense.
Mixed-use developments have extra layers of complexity because they always involve more stakeholders. It adds extra weight to the design and place-making process, because the needs of retailers and residents must be balanced with the needs of local planning authorities, state and federal bodies, community organisations and more. Consultation needs to be deep, thorough and authentic, because every project is unique.
At Ed, for instance, we have apartments directly above retail uses, which called for a bespoke design approach to enable comfortable resident living as well as a trading environment for retailers to thrive in. Importantly, once the buildings are finished, the developer’s role isn’t. You need to invest in the community, building initiatives that mean the development succeeds over the long-term.
What are some of the tools that influence your decision-making?
Data informs everything we do and is particularly important in creating bespoke centres tailored specifically to their local communities. We collect real-time customer feedback, engage focus groups, undertake thorough consultation, review demographic research and more to understand the local profile to a granular level, then curate a retail response to add value in a community sense.
No two Frasers Property centres are the same so we rely on data to influence the entire process, from design, to leasing, operation and beyond.
Ed.Square, NSW
Tell us about the importance of sustainability and how it influences your developments?
There are no longer any excuses.
The community, investors, governments and the industry itself expects better sustainability performance of the retail centres we create, both in development and in operation. Benchmarks like Green Star remain important, and so does the willingness to invest in innovation.
Frasers Property is unafraid to investigate and test new technologies and models and push the boundaries of what’s possible. It helps us identify better ways to do things and ascertain what might have broader application. More than just in an environmental sense, but also in a social sustainability sense.
As many of our centres are part of mixed-use communities that are home to many residents, we invest in place-making strategies and community building initiatives that integrate retail with community uses, and which jointly involve our retailers and residents.
For instance, at Ed.Square Town Centre, we have a dedicated space in which our Community Development Manager runs programs for our residents in conjunction with our retailers, like pilates classes and other initiatives we know our customers want. It promotes the long-term sustainability of the communities we create.
What excites you about the future of our industry?
Retail by nature is an exciting industry because the future is so hard to predict. The dynamics change so fast. Not too long ago, online retailing was going to spell the end of bricks-and-mortar, yet what actually happened was the rise of experiential.
I think the way brands deliver experience will continue to evolve, pushing the boundaries even further. The entertainment space is fertile ground. Consider bowling. It’s a category that went out of vogue, only to re-emerge with an integrated food and beverage offer, to become relevant and cool again. There’s a similar re-emergence happening with darts and other previously ‘forgotten’ categories. Who knows what centres will look like in ten years’ time? It will be fascinating to find out!
What advice would you give to someone starting in the industry?
Don’t pigeon-hole yourself. Be open to new opportunities and trying different things. Prior to working with Woolworths, I was working on land subdivisions and didn’t necessarily think I’d have a specific interest in retail. Then, when I started working on some neighbourhood retail developments and began to understand the challenges and opportunities in retail, I discovered a real passion for it. I’m grateful for that experience, as it set my career on the right trajectory.
As well as broadening your skill base, it’s important to be inquisitive. There’s a lot of jargon in the development industry so it’s always best to seek clarity instead of remaining silent. So don’t be afraid to ask – it’s better to have a full understanding from the outset.
This Q&A profile of Thomas Rethati forms part of SCN’s Movers & Shakers feature. Premium members can view the full series in the latest edition of SCN magazine.
