We’ve had a lot happening at SCN since our last issue…
The major event of our year – the Big Guns lunch – occurred and as always, it was a great day. The mood was upbeat, the CEO addresses were positive and with such an authoritative audience, there is no room for papering over any cracks.
I really enjoy the CEOs’ addresses at that lunch; with about 150 of the top people in the industry present, there’s no room for ‘PR presentations’, ‘feel-good’ speeches or ‘company messages’. The CEOs talk about their priorities, what they see as opportunities and the challenges ahead; they’re very different and it gives one a great insight into the depth of expertise that’s out there and the sheer professionalism of our industry.
A week later we went to the opening of Stockland Green Hills (which is our Cover Story this issue), a really amazing event that appeared to attract the whole trade area to the centre over a couple of days! It’s been a long time coming but the result shows it was worth waiting for. Stockland has transformed what was the best Little Gun in the country, into a fully-fledged Big Gun by more than doubling its size and incorporating a dramatic food and beverage, leisure and entertainment component. The Cover Story discusses the development in detail; it will be really interesting to see how it trades in comparison to its former performance. (We predict it will be an outstanding centre!)
The centre profile on Mirvac’s Toombul Shopping Centre is required reading. Shows what you can do with a relatively modest outlay in capital expenditure, to transform a centre. We all talk about being close to the market, in tune with our customers, responding to consumer demand and so on and so on. In the case of Mirvac’s Toombul, the principles have been put into practice in a very clear, concise and obvious manner, by an expert team that knew exactly what to do and carried out the process with great expertise and professionalism. It’s a ‘text-book’ case of ‘unlocking value’ and provides a great example for young executives in our industry.
And during this period, we launched our own ‘online’ platform. Belinda Daly, a former regular columnist in her capacity as Head of Marketing at AMP Capital Shopping Centres, joined us to run our digital arm. She’s already cemented herself in here and has great ideas for the future of our digital platform; it’s great to have her on board.
Enjoy this issue, it’s packed with some really interesting stuff and should be digested from cover to cover!
