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

[Howie]

Just referring to my previous post.

Here's the floor plan for the new Arndale, it similar in size to West Lakes shopping mall.


And here is the current site as viewed through google earth

It's a bit hard to tell from the photos but it's sorta in the middle of that current site, as you can see on the proposal above, that this will all become part of the new food court and the bus interchange will be shifted towards to the top of that floorplan.

[pushbutton]

Thanks for the scan Howie, but even though I am very familiar with the current layout of Centro Arndale, I am having some difficulty understanding where everything is on that floorplan and how it relates to the current layout, because I can't read the names of any of the major stores.

Can you help me get my bearings?

[Howie]

Yep no worries.. the road on the bottom that runs left to right, that's Hanson Road. So the big store to the right of screen would be Harris Scarfe, the one on the left of screen would be Big W. The white building on the top right of screen is Greater Union. The warehouse on top left of screen has been demolished.

[Al]

However I have heard whispers from quite reliable sources that Myer may be considering whether to convert the Arndale Harris Scarfe store to the Myer format, although I don't think that's been decided yet.

I didn't know Myer had a stake in Harris Scarfe. I thought they were both separate entities.

[pushbutton]

Yes, they do have a stake in HS.

[pushbutton]

Yep no worries.. the road on the bottom that runs left to right, that's Hanson Road. So the big store to the right of screen would be Harris Scarfe, the one on the left of screen would be Big W. The white building on the top right of screen is Greater Union. The warehouse on top left of screen has been demolished.

Ok that helps. I think I get it now. Thanks.

[The_Q915]

A billbord in the carpark entry with two renders

[pushbutton]

In true Arndale style, the renders are terrible (they sort of look ok, but you can only just tell what they're meant to be)

Also, the billboard text doesn't give any information really. It's vague to say the least.

Anyway on the positive side, it does seem to show that at long last, we might actually see some action there soon!

[AtD]

Bad news for this project.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 43,00.html

Centro Properties Group fell as much as 77.4 per cent in market value today after it cut its profit forecast for the 2008 financial year due to higher debt costs.

The US sub-prime crisis, sparked by owners with poor credit histories defaulting on their mortgage repayments as the interest bill rose, has forced banks to become more risk averse and has led to hefty increases in the cost of capital for other borrowers.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 08,00.html

Chief executive Andrew Scott told The Australian at a press conference this morning that ”the board considers the organisation is still solvent and that remains at least until completion of the February review.”

[Howie]

That's big news! Hopefully they don't stop the redevelopment halfway, so much untapped potential there.. it's smack bang in the middle of the booming part of the western suburbs.

[Edgar]

It's a good mall with many big brands in it, but the facility looks tired, and is in desperate need for a facelit.

I too hope the redevelopment will continue.

[crawf]

This recently crash is massive news, Centro is a big company.

[AtD]

Or, alternatively, if the shit does hit the fan and Centro are forced to liquidate Arndale, the new owners see the benefits of continuing the work.

[pushbutton]

I'd be extremely surprised if the redevelopment didn't get completed now it's finally begun. Contracts have obviously been signed with builders and some tenants, and those would be very hard to pull out of.

Also Centro owns many very small shopping centres, so I would imagine that if they needed to liquidate some assetts to offset the losses sustained (referred to in the above article) then it would probably make more sense to sell off some smaller centres, and keep their bigger ones such as Arndale and Colonnades. I'm no expert on this but that seems right to me.

Also though from reading info on Centros website about this, it refers exclusively to USA conditions, and states that Centro has had some restrictions placed on its growth plans in the US market.

It says nothing about Australia and I doubt it will have any significant impact here for now.

[Burger]

Pushbutton, hate to tell you but I'm informed it's been officially 'put on hold' unti lthe debt refinancing debacle is rectified. This story has a long way to go before it reaches it's climax, just keep watching the papers and business websites because it's gonna be a good one.

As for liquidating the smaller Centres ahead of the bigger ones, the company holds most of its property in syndicated investment vehicles, so liquuidation is very difficult and it's actually some of the larger ones that would be easier to palm off as the parent company owns some of the largest centres on JV basis (centro 50%/syndicate 50%) - simplistically they could sell their share to 'whoever' and leave the rest syndiacated. Either way it's not going to be an easy solution and someone's going to pick themselves up a bargain or three.

Personally I think it might not be a bad idea to sell of some of the small ($25-$50M) centres as there are more sharks in the range to help keep the price up than out in the $200-$400M range for centres such as Colonnades and Arndale where there are only really three or four big players who could seriously make them work (Westfield wouldn't buy either of these 2, remember they bought Colonnades from AMP and then on-sold it to Centro and Arndale is too close to West Lakes).

I have a few sources, as I'm sure a few of you do, and will be sure to keep the forum up to date on the juicy bits.