[COM] Armada Arndale (Redevelopment) | $200m

[ac83]

rev is revved up! Totally agree with your comments though. Surely centro would have done a business analysis before committing to anything

[pushbutton]

All I was saying is there are only so many customers in the region and they can't all be at two massive shopping centres at the same time. However there's more than enough to support the small extensions to Arndale that are going ahead, and then some.

[The Scooter Guy]

Earthworks are in progress next to the carpark & bus interchange when I went there.

[Adeguy72]

Arndale struggles from a sales point of view - not sure what it's MAT would be, but I am guessing no where near what West Lakes is.

in my view, it is the worst of Adelaide's 6 regional shopping centres, and just isn't in the same league as the other 5.

The Harris Scarfe store there trades very poorly - reflected in David Jones taking on the Johnnies lease at West Lakes and not Arndale, and also by Myer taking over the Harris Scarfe leases at Elizabeth and Colonades but not Arndale.

I read today that DJ's is unlikely to renew their lease at West Lakes when it expires in the next couple of years, so I would guess that Myer will take over their store there, which will be another nail in the coffin of Arndale, given that Myer is more down market than DJ's and is likely to draw shoppers away from Harris Scarfe (and other stores) at Arndale.

I always wonder why Arndale and West lakes were built so close together - the area just isn't big enough for both and Arndae unfortunately will always be the poor cousin.

[crawf]

Arndale struggles from a sales point of view - not sure what it's MAT would be, but I am guessing no where near what West Lakes is.

in my view, it is the worst of Adelaide's 6 regional shopping centres, and just isn't in the same league as the other 5.

The Harris Scarfe store there trades very poorly - reflected in David Jones taking on the Johnnies lease at West Lakes and not Arndale, and also by Myer taking over the Harris Scarfe leases at Elizabeth and Colonades but not Arndale.

I read today that DJ's is unlikely to renew their lease at West Lakes when it expires in the next couple of years, so I would guess that Myer will take over their store there, which will be another nail in the coffin of Arndale, given that Myer is more down market than DJ's and is likely to draw shoppers away from Harris Scarfe (and other stores) at Arndale.

I always wonder why Arndale and West lakes were built so close together - the area just isn't big enough for both and Arndae unfortunately will always be the poor cousin.

Source?

[Adeguy72]

Source was a stockbroker retail sector research analyst.

Their view is that DJ's will close 2 stores within the next 3 years - West Lakes plus Macarthur Square in NSW.

Macarthur Square is a given - as this was one of the stores they offloaded to Harris Scarfe and then had to take back when they went bust in 2001. Is in a low socio economic area in Sydney and trades poorly.

Personally, I think they may retain West Lakes as without it they drop to only 2 stores in SA and they lose some economies of scale, but their current stance is that any unprofitable stores are closed upon lease expiry. The West Lakes store trades poorly and I am guessing is only marginally profitable. The alternative may be to downsize or retain if Westfield will give them some incentives to stay (maybe funding of a long overdue refurbishment?), but if Westfield can get Myer to take over the lease they would go with this option as they get uplift in revenue given that Westfield take fixed rent plus % of sales (presuming Myer trades better than DJ's which I'm guessing it would given the area is more likely to support Myer than DJ's).

[rev]

Was it here or SSC that I was reading about how Myer and DJ's would or were looking at having smaller stores?
Such smaller stores would be well suited to Arndale I think.

The suburbs around Arndale are traditionally working class.
Ferryden Park, like a minute up the road, was the poorest suburb in Australia at one stage, before the Westwood redevelopment in the area.
The area has changed a lot. So what was once applicable in terms of why a retailer like DJ's would chose West Lakes over Arndale, no longer is.

The St Clair development is around the corner. It is a more 'expensive' development then Westwood. Land & houses are more expensive.
Arndale is on their door step. It's like 800m up the road.
Similarly the Woodville TOD next to St Clair will also have Arndale on it's door step, less then 1.5km.

If the Kilkenny TOD materializes as well, that is a lot of extra people living in the surrounding suburbs. 1km up the road.
Arndale is on the door step of ALL these developments, West Lakes is not.

Therefore there is plenty of reasons to further redevelop and upgrade Arndale.

Peoples attitudes are changing too. If they can go on a short drive nearby, they would rather do that then drive further away, especially with the cost of petrol these days which will only keep going up.
Save the environment and all that.

[rev]

Quite a bit of kerbing and bitumen laid in the car park realignment behind big w.

[pushbutton]

The kerbing and new road is to replace the road that currently runs along the side of Big W. This road will be closed off in the next day or two so that construction can begin on the Big W extension and a small mall extension. Also, the new loading ramp for Woolworths has been mostly dug out and construction is just about ready to commence on the actual extension to Woolworths.

The curved blue arches attached to the back of Big W are currently being removed and other works will then take place to improve the appearance of that side of the building.

[pushbutton]

Construction will be ramping up noticably in the next week or two with internal demolition of all mall ceilings to start soon, along with site works for the Big W extension and demolition of the existing external wall of Big W where it will join onto the extension.

[kinnoda]

Mr argument is that 'mall' shopping has been dead for a few years now. Most major Westfield projects around the world of late have been either minor or major projects in inner city areas.

[pushbutton]

Side wall of Big W now removed (with temporary wall in place), to facilitate new extension to be joined on.

New loading ramp for Woolworths extension ready for concreting.

[rev]

[s]I drove past this morning & didn't notice any wall gone. Unless the temporary wall looks exactly the same.[/s]
edit- my mistake, I noticed it in the morning on the way home. Odd how I noticed it when drunk but sober I didn't see a thing..

I did notice a mobile crane is there, and they are slowly pulling apart bits of the upper level car park wall.

[pushbutton]

Internal ceiling demolition has now begun.

[The Scooter Guy]

I'll head down for progress pics tomorrow or Friday.