Westfield

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<p>The latest addition to Swarovski's 2,500 stores worldwide is its newly refurbished Westfield Knox store.</p>
<p>Located at Shop 2031, 425 Burwood Highway, Wantirna South, the store employs the latest from Swarovski's ‘Crystal Forest’ store concept.</p>
<p>Robert Buchbauer, of the Executive Board said "Swarovski looks forward to welcoming shoppers into the sparkling new Crystal Forest store from Thursday the 6th of September 2018, where from 9am where shoppers will receive 20% off when 3 or more items of full priced jewellery, watches and accessories (excluding Swarovski Remix Collection) are purchased between the 6th and the 9th of September.</p>
<p>The first 30 customers will also receive a special bag on opening day. </p>
<p><span>The Swarovski Crystal Business is run by the fifth generation of family members, has a global reach with stores in around 170 countries and more than 27,000 employees.</span></p>
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

Swarovksi relaunches their Knox City store in Knox Westfield 

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<p>Parramatta is rapidly boosting its credentials as the economic and social hub of Western Sydney, with another very large commercial tower likely to join its ranks.</p>

<p>Scentre Group, the owner-operator of $35 billion-worth of Westfields in Australia and New Zealand, has lodged a development application amendment to alter a previous approval dating back to 2014. That scheme allowed for additional retail shopping floor at Parramatta Westfield and a 120 metre commercial tower to be constructed at the corner of Church &amp; Argyle Streets.</p>

<p>The fresh amendment seeks to move the commercial tower component of the project 80 metres west along Argyle Street, allowing for a significant increase in its size and improved integration with its immediate environs.</p>

<figure><a class="colorbox colorbox-insert-image" href="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public//pictures/article-images/image44a.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Westfield Tower as envisaged by Woods Bagot"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="804" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files//styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/image44a.jpg?itok=xX4ms39M" title="Westfield Tower as envisaged by Woods Bagot" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Westfield Tower as envisaged by Woods Bagot</figcaption></figure><p>The new tower is proposed to reach 210 metres and accommodate 41 levels of premium-grade campus-style office space, offering market competitive flexible rectilinear floor plates of slightly more than 3,000 square metres per floor.</p>

<p>With an overall Net Lettable Area of 112,000 square metres, it will be one of the largest commercial office buildings in Australia. The tower is similar in size to Barangaroo’s International Tower 1, which is the current holder of the title.</p>

<p>Such is the scale of development in Parramatta that Westfield's proposal will play second fiddle to nearby <a href="https://www.parramattasquare.net.au/commercial/">6-8 Parramatta Square</a>, which will offer a still larger 125,000 square metres of premium-grade floor space upon completion in 2021.</p>

<figure><a class="colorbox colorbox-insert-image" href="https://res.cloudinary.com/dz9xllyip/image/fetch/q_auto:good/https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/www.urban.com.au/s3fs-public//pictures/article-images/parramatta-square-skyline-day_-_jpw.jpg" rel="gallery-all" title="Johnson Pilton Walker's 6-8 Parramatta Square will offer comparable floor plates to Westfield Tower"><img alt="" class="image-article-full-width-580px" height="773" src="/sites/urban.melbourne/files//styles/article_full_width_580px/public/pictures/article-images/parramatta-square-skyline-day_-_jpw.jpg?itok=30-ke-Ji" title="Johnson Pilton Walker's 6-8 Parramatta Square will offer comparable floor plates to Westfield Tower" width="580"></a>

<figcaption>Johnson Pilton Walker's 6-8 Parramatta Square will offer comparable floor plates to Westfield Tower</figcaption></figure><p>Westfield Tower's proposed new location on Argyle Street would activate a currently neglected pocket of Parramatta's CBD, drawing in a continuous stream of office workers and visitors accessing both the commercial tower and Westfield itself. </p>

<p>The tower lobby will be integrated into the streetscape, offering street-facing retail and cafe/restaurant premises, helping general activation.</p>

<p>Retail space will also be provided on the sixth floor of the development. Office workers and shoppers alike will  be able to utilise a ‘social garden’ which sits between the lobby and the sixth-floor retail precinct. </p>

<p>The relocated tower would also disrupt fewer retail tenancies during construction. According to documents, the new location allows the structural supports for the tower to punch cleanly through a slice of the Myer multi-storey retail tenancy, with a negotiated use of their retail floors during construction, allowing Myer to continue trading uninterrupted.</p>

<p>Woods Bagot are responsible for the design of the premium-grade building which will target a five-star Green Star rating.</p>
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ModernBradfield

Parramatta bulks up with another Barangaroo-sized commercial tower proposal

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<p>Unibail-Rodamco has completed the acquisition of Westfield.</p>
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<p>Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield combines two of the strongest and most respected names in the real estate industry to build on their legacies.</p>
<p>With a portfolio valued at €62 billion, of which 88 percent is in retail, seven percent in offices and six percent in convention and exhibition venues.</p>
<p>Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield owns and operates 102 shopping centres in 13 countries, of which 56 are flagships in the most dynamic cities in Europe and in the United States.</p>
<p>Its centres welcome 1.2 billion visits per year.</p>
<div data-reactid="402">
<p data-reactid="403">The $32 billion takeover of Frank Lowy's retail landlord giant Westfield only ever faced mooted opposition.</p>
<div>
<p>Under the headline, Macquarie Capital buddies up to Unibail-Rodamco, the Australian Financial Review fleetingly noted that Macquarie Capital was the latest investment bank to pick up consultancy fees in Australia's biggest ever takeover.</p>
<p>After Unibail-Rodamco's $32 billion cash and scrip bid for Westfield Group, sources told the AFR's Street Talk said the Paris-headquartered Unibail "hauled in" Macquarie's bankers to help with elements of the "deal execution", helping Unibail manage its foreign currency risk. </p>
<p>Macquarie was the latest in a long list of banks to secure a place on Unibail's side of the deal ticket. </p>
</div>
<div>
<div>Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank were first there, while others involved include Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>All up advisory fees on the deal topped $US100 million. </div>
</div>
<div>
<p>A byproduct of Macquarie's role was that its real estate research analysts, spearheaded by Rob Freeman, were placed on restriction effective mid-takeover consideration. </p>
<p data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-7770372_137="22062" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-7770372_137="4000" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-7770372_137="1">Macquarie Equity's team equities research team was one of the few that initially did not hold back. </p>
<p>Macquarie noted while the transaction had strategic merit, but needed financial merit.</p>
<p>"We do not believe the current terms are compelling enough for WFD unitholders," it fleetingly suggested before the clamp came. </p>
</div>
<div>But no higher offer ever emerged.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The transaction had been unanimously recommended by Westfield's board as well as Unibail-Rodamco's management board and supervisory board</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Under the terms of the offer, Westfield shareholders will receive 0.01844 Unibail shares and $US2.67 for every Westfield security they hold. 
<div>
<p>Unibail initial terms were handing over cash worth $US5.6 billion to Westfield securityholders, as well as 38.7 million of its own shares. </p>
<p>Taking into account exchange rates and share price movements, the pocketed offer was less than the $10.01 when the deal was announced in December. </p>
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Unibail-Rodamco completes the acquisition of Westfield

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<p><span>Westfield Corp</span><span> shareholders have voted in favour of a $16 billion takeover by Unibail-Rodamco.</span></p>
<p><span><span>The approval was the final hurdle for the takeover.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>It has already received the green signal from Unibail shareholders, boards of both companies, as well as Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board.</span></span></p>
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Westfield shareholders approve Unibail-Rodamco deal

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<p>Louise Grimmer, University of Tasmania and Matthew Bailey, Macquarie University.</p>
<p>The sale of Westfield to the French property firm Unibail-Rodamco draws to a close (with a <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-12/westfield-lowy-family-sells-empire-for-32-billion/9250776" target="_blank">A$32 billion reward</a>) one of Australia’s greatest business success stories. But it also shows where Australian retail could be headed next.</p>
<p>Westfield has been at the heart of Australian retail innovation and development since Frank Lowy and Jeno Schwarcz (later John Saunders) formed a partnership in the mid-1950s. Both holocaust survivors, they arrived in Australia with next to nothing and built an empire.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The early history of the firm is covered in Jill Margo’s <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780732269074/" target="_blank">biography</a> of Lowy and Westfield’s own <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1980510" target="_blank">company history</a>. After operating a delicatessen in Blacktown in Sydney’s Western suburbs, the pair moved into residential and then retail property development, opening a small “American style” shopping centre in Blacktown, on July 2, 1959.</p>
<p>Westfield Place was one of the first shopping centres to open in Australia and was reflective of transformative changes occurring in retail at the time. Rapid growth in <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features40July+2013" target="_blank">car ownership</a>, and support for home ownership by both sides of politics brought a massive demographic shift as Australians <a href="http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/media/153826/home-sweet-home-the-australian-dream-" target="_blank">flocked to the suburbs</a>.</p>
<p>This upended <a href="https://theconversation.com/history-says-department-stores-will-struggle-in-the-future-85527" target="_blank">established retail geographies</a>. City department stores had to open <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14490854.2014.11668500" target="_blank">suburban branches</a> to survive. At the same time, Coles and Woolworths, which began as variety store chains, were moving into food retailing by buying up traditional grocery chains.</p>
<p>These retail firms required sites in the suburbs big enough to house modern stores. They also needed space for parking. In America, similar trends had seen the emergence of a new retail form, <a href="http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=7196" target="_blank">the shopping centre</a>.</p>
<h2>The rise of the shopping centre</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.scca.org.au/industry-information/australian-shopping-centre-industry/" target="_blank">Shopping centres</a> solved the problem of traffic congestion that was beginning to plague suburban high streets and offered a social space for people to congregate. These centres also provided a curated mix of shops that could be shaped to meet market needs, and facilitated the expansion of retail chains. Air conditioning added to their appeal.</p>
<p>Westfield was but one of numerous small developers seizing opportunities in a rapidly changing market. But from very early on the firm had higher ambitions.</p>
<p>By retaining the centres it built in an investment portfolio, Westfield obtained cash flow, security for finance, and assets that could be upgraded through expansion and redevelopment.</p>
<p>The other major early developers were retailers themselves. Department store firms like Myer, Grace Bros, Boans and David Jones <a href="https://theconversation.com/history-says-department-stores-will-struggle-in-the-future-85527" target="_blank">played an important role</a> in establishing large-scale shopping centres in Australia, and the supermarkets were also heavily involved in development. Over time, though, specialist developers, managers and landlords like Westfield and Lend Lease became the dominant players.</p>
<p>These firms proved highly adept at incorporating new retail models and entertainment formats into shopping centres: discount department stores <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aehr.12107/abstract" target="_blank">in the 1970s</a>; food courts and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/shopping-for-entertainment-malls-and-multiplexes-in-sydney-australia/469F326CB6286E1A978FD4C0BA4DB40E" target="_blank">cinemas</a> in the late-1980s; <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024630197000757" target="_blank">category killers</a> in the 1990s; the recent shift to include more <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/shopping-centres-bank-on-coffee-and-salons-amid-retail-slump-20170815-gxws0g" target="_blank">services and restaurants</a>.</p>
<p>Retail, though, is about access to goods. Shopping centres were an innovation in the middle of the last century that proved superior to other forms of distribution. Online retailing is proving similarly disruptive.</p>
<h2>Where to from here for shopping centres?</h2>
<p>The growth of online shopping means that many physical retailers as well as consumers, are no longer solely dependent on shopping centres and malls. This has resulted in the closure of many of the traditional anchor stores in large shopping centres.</p>
<p>Most obviously, department stores are suffering a <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/department-stores-face-uncertain-future-as-sales-seen-shrinking-over-coming-years-20170301-gunxmh" target="_blank">prolonged and rather painful decline</a>. In response, <a href="https://www.insideretail.com.au/blog/2016/11/03/david-jones-boutique-offering-open-for-business/" target="_blank">David Jones</a> and UK retailer Debenhams are rethinking their store format strategy and opening smaller, more carefully curated boutique stores in affluent suburbs. Touted as the <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/retail/debenhams-unveils-the-future-for-australian-department-stores-20171012-gyzdgd" target="_blank">future of Australian retailing</a>, these smaller formats do not rely on being located in shopping malls.</p>
<p>Clearly, shopping centres cannot compete with the huge product range and convenience of online shopping. But these centres are well-positioned to appeal to consumers by offering experiences and services that cannot be replicated online.</p>
<p>In the future we will see much more effort devoted to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-shopping-centres-are-changing-to-fight-online-shopping-80056" target="_blank">attracting shoppers to malls</a> through a mix of leisure and entertainment options.</p>
<p>Australian centres will increasingly replicate malls in the UK, USA, Asia and Latin America. In addition to the various up-scale dining options and cinema complexes that are already part of Australian centres, many international malls feature concert venues, fitness clubs and day spas, art centres, galleries and even farmers markets.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong><em>Read more: <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-retailers-want-you-to-click-and-collect-83094" target="_blank">Why retailers want you to ‘click and collect’</a></em></strong></p>
<hr>
<p>Shopping centres are also trying to attract families to visit and spend more time in centres. To encourage this they are installing infrastructure and activities designed to appeal to parents and children such as the huge <a href="https://melbourne.legolanddiscoverycentre.com.au/" target="_blank">Legoland amusement park</a> housed in the Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne.</p>
<p>Some malls are also attempting to recreate a <a href="http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/shopping-centres-turn-to-village-life-as-retailers-feel-pinch/news-story/7b895c819d14bf478ab7db1b0747b607" target="_blank">village feel</a> through moving away from just shopping to using the public space in their centres, focusing on community activities such as libraries.</p>
<p>Although Australian centres will still continue to try and attract anchor tenants to drive foot traffic, we will see much more emphasis on new modes of retailing including <a href="https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/news/pop-up-shops-theres-no-stopping-australias-latest-retail-boom/" target="_blank">pop up stores</a>, more small and independent stores as well as kiosks to increase the diversity of the offering and give customers more reasons to visit the mall. Westfield even <a href="http://www.westfieldpopup.com.au/" target="_blank">changed the name</a> of its casual leasing division to “pop-up department” to appeal to a new cohort of retailers and shoppers.</p>
<p>To address the digital disruption that is impacting on traditional retail, malls and centres will harness technology to assist shoppers during their visit. This will include <a href="https://www.insideretail.com.au/blog/2016/10/19/stockland-centres-smart-parking-system/" target="_blank">sensor technology for parking cars</a>, <a href="https://theblog.adobe.com/a-digital-shopping-experience-coming-soon-to-a-mall-near-you/" target="_blank">augmented reality for guiding shoppers</a> through centres and locating stores and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/23/facial-recognition-is-tracking-customers-as-they-shop-in-stores-tech-company-says">face recognition technology</a> for providing customised offers and promotions as part of the shopping mall experience.</p>
<p>They key to future success for shopping centres will be in offering shoppers unique services and experiences that give them a reason to get off the internet and back into the mall.</p>
<p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89073/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">There are few Australians alive with a better understanding of retail that Frank, Peter and Steven Lowy. The fact that they are moving out of physical store development to invest in <a href="https://www.onemarketnetwork.com/" target="_blank">innovative retail technology and big data</a> should be of significant interest to those pondering the future direction of retail in this country.</p>
<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/louise-grimmer-212082" target="_blank">Louise Grimmer</a>, Lecturer in Marketing, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-tasmania-888" target="_blank">University of Tasmania</a></em> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/matthew-bailey-414427" target="_blank">Matthew Bailey</a>, Lecturer, Retail History, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/macquarie-university-1174" target="_blank">Macquarie University</a></em></span></p>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/westfields-history-tracks-the-rise-of-the-australian-shopping-centre-and-shows-whats-to-come-89073" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
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jrobinson-rf4aSBido9

Westfield's history tracks the rise of the Australian shopping centre and shows what's to come

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<p>Westfield Corporation is set to be taken over by the European shopping centre giant, Unibail-Rodamco.</p>
<p>A global property giant with 104 malls in 27 markets around the world will emerge after a takeover deal worth $32.7 billion.</p>
<p>Estates Gazette noted Rothschild’s property team, led by Alex Midgen, advised Westfield as well as Intu and Deutsche Bank’s property team, led in Europe by Rishi Bhuchar &amp; Klaus Elmendorff advised Unibail as well Hammerson.</p>
<p>Unibail shares traded lower in overnight European trade.</p>
</div>
<p>Frank Lowy, Westfield’s chairman, and his sons Steven and Peter, who are the current co-chief executives, will vote in favour of the deal, which values each Westfield security at an 18 per cent premium to the value of Westfield securities at the end of Monday’s trading session.</p>
<p>Peter Lowy calculated that since 1960 $1000 invested in Westfield would be worth $440 million.</p>
<p>The Lowy family said it intends to maintain an investment in the combined international group which is headquartered in Paris. As part of its takeover, shareholders will receive a combination of cash and shares in Unibal-Rodamco.</p>
<p>Frank Lowy said it was a day of mixed emotion but that he was certain it’s the right decision.... he foresaw a bright future.</p>
<p>Westfield chairman Sir Frank Lowy said the deal was “the culmination of the strategic journey Westfield has been on since its 2014 restructure”.</p>
<p>“We see this transaction as highly compelling for Westfield’s security holders and Unibail-Rodamco’s shareholders alike,” Sir Frank said.</p>
<p>He also suggested the family wanted to<span> change their role to investors ... "we’ve [Frank &amp; sons] been doing it for a combined 145yrs.”</span></p>
<p>Shares in Westfield Corporation, the owner of shopping centres in the US and UK, were placed in a trading halt earlier today pending the announcement of a potentially “significant” corporate transaction.</p>
<p>Westfield shares had last traded on Monday at $8.55. </p>
<p>Frank Lowy will retire as chairman of Westfield, but will chair an advisory board for the new merged company, while his sons Peter and Steven will retain leadership roles.</p>
<div>
<div id="unruly-publisher-marker__inArticle">Founded in Sydney in 1953 by Frank Lowy and John Saunders, Westfield currently has interests in 35 shopping centres in the US and the UK, while its Australian centres are managed by the separately listed Scentre Group which remains independent.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Scentre rose 17¢, or 4.1 per cent, to $4.35 while other local property trusts including its rival Vicinity Centres picked up. Vicinity rose 2.5 per cent, or 7¢, to close at $2.87 on Tuesday.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>It started in humble Blacktown.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Last month at a film crew's behest, Frank Lowy went back to Blacktown where the delicatessen was opened in 1955, followed by the first Westfield mall in 1959.
<p>His biographer Jill Margo, writing in the AFR, noted when he was walking down the street two older women called out "Hey Frankie!".</p>
<p>"They recognised me!" he said. "They'd been customers in the deli 60 years ago and had such fond memories. We reflected on those memories and the fact that they still live with the pleasure of being acquainted with me was a great thrill. What more could I want."</p>
<p>Margo added that Frank was always adamant that there would be no Lowy dynasty.</p>
<p>He and his wife, Shirley, have 11 grandchildren and, so far, four great grandchildren.</p>
<div>"While thrilled to work with his sons, David, Peter and Steven, he never believed in trying to coax any grandchildren into the business," Margo advised, adding the older ones now work in the investment arena, the theatre, the internet, medical clinics, not for profits, and small enterprises – all unrelated to malls.</div>
<div>
<p>And his sons collectively, had worked alongside their father for more than 90 years "and it's time," Margo concluded.</p>
</div>
It has been suggested the red Westfield brand will prevail, at least in English speaking world. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Unibail-Rodamco's chief executive,Christophe Cuvillier a French retail veteran, spent three years in Sydney in the 1990s as head of L'Oreal's Australian luxury products division.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The news comes just a week after property company, Hammerson, announced it had made a bid to take over rival firm, Intu.</div>
</div>
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jchancellor-FAypfDUnLy

Oui ....Westfield yields to Parisian takeover

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<p>Australian shopping center company Westfield Corp on Tuesday has entered a trading halt for its shares on the Australian Securities Exchange this morning ahead of an announcement on a potential transaction. </p>
<p>The company said it was in discussions with unnamed parties for a “potentially significant corporate transaction”, without divulging further information. </p>
<p>Westfield said it expects to make a related announcement on Thursday.</p>
<p>The early speculation is that the $17 billion company, whose major shareholders include the Lowy family, may be selling some of its non flagship centres.</p>
<p>Or undertaking a tilt at US mall owner GGP or looking to demerge its North American assets, or thinking of a merger of its real estate interests in France.</p>
<div>
<p>By early afternoon there was speculation Westfield was set to be taken over by a European shopping centre giant in a takeover deal said to be worth $32.7 billion.</p>
</div>
<p>Unibail-Rodamco will take over the ASX-listed company to create a global property giant with 104 malls in 27 retail markets around the world.</p>
<p><span>Unibail-Rodamco is the largest listed commercial real estate company in Europe and the second-largest globally by value.</span></p>
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Westfield enters trading halt with significant announcement due this Thursday

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<p><span>Westfield has no short-term plans to sell a chunk of its $2 billion World Trade Centre mall in New York, according to <em>The Australian</em> in an exclusive interview.</span></p>
<p><span>Featured on the front pages of the newspaper and its business section, but behind the paywall, it f</span><span>urthermore noted Frank Lowy has no intention of retiring as chairman of Westfield Corporation any time soon, his son Steven told Turi Condon.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12.16px; line-height: 1.3em;"><img src="/images/2016/01/20/unnamed.jpg" alt=""></span></p>
<p><span>Its front page has images of the pride of Westfield's work, the ceiling, named Oculus due to its whalebone-like structure.</span></p>
<p><span>"The Calatrava building will become one of the world's iconic pieces of architecture in one of the most sacred sites in the US, if not the world," said Steven who was at the WTC.</span></p>
<p><span>Westfield bought the World Trade Centre mall in July 2001, months before the September 11 terrorist attacks.</span></p>
<p><span>The reimagined mall, part of Westfield's $11.4 billion development program have retained some stores such as Victoria's Secret and Duane and Reade but have added a new generation of retailers.</span></p>
<p><span>Popular electronics company Apple will take up two levels and the food emporium Eataly will take up about 11 percent of the 112,000 sqm floor.</span></p>
<p><span>The first stage is due to open before the northern summer with most of the retailers to open in the second half of the year.</span></p>
<p><span>Following Lowy's decision to retire as the chairman of ASX-listed Scentre Group, the Westfield chairman's son however reconfirmed he will be staying on at Westfield after recovering from his operation.</span></p>
<p><span>"Dad is very strong physically and mentally," Steven said.</span></p>
<p><span>"He has continually said as long as he is strong and capable, and enjoying what he does, he will continue to do that"</span></p>
<p><span>Frank Lowy sustained a blood clot near his brain following a heavy fall from the podium during the A-League grand final presentation last May.</span></p>
<p><span>He is due to visit the World Trade Centre development in a few months.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.3em;"> </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
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Frank Lowy plans to stay as Westfield signals keeping its World Trade Centre Mall

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<p><span>Frank Lowy has announced he will retire as chairman of the ASX-listed Scentre Group at the company's annual general meeting in May 2016.</span></p>
<p><span>The Scentre board has appointed deputy chairman Brian Schwartz to succeed Lowy.</span></p>
<p><span>Lowy said it was the right time to announce his retirement from Scentre Group given that it had successfully completed its establishment phase following the restructuring of the Westfield Group in June 2014. </span></p>
<p><span>"The transition to new leadership has been carefully planned and I have the utmost confidence that Brian Schwartz as the incoming chairman, and CEO Peter Allen, will make the most of those opportunities," he said.</span></p>
<p><span>“Frank has been one of the outstanding business and community leaders of the past 50 years,” Schwartz said.</span></p>
<p><span>Lowy said the Lowy Family Group would continue with its investment in Scentre Group.</span></p>
<p><span>He will continue in his role as chairman of Westfield Corporation.</span></p>
<p><span>Steven Lowy will continue to be a non-executive director of the Scentre Group.</span></p>
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