Westfield Corporation

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Westfield Corporation
Company type Public
ASX: WFD
Industry
Predecessor Westfield Group (1960–2014)
Founded2014;10 years ago (2014)
Founder
DefunctJune 2018
FateMerged with Unibail-Rodamco
Successor Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (2018–present)
HeadquartersLevel 29, 85 Castlereagh Street,
Sydney
,
Australia
Area served
Key people
Revenue A$635.5 million (2014)
Total assets A$29 billion (2016) [2]
Number of employees
1,700 worldwide (2016) [2]
Subsidiaries
  • Westfield Management Limited
  • Westfield America Management Limited
Website www.westfieldcorp.com

Westfield Corporation was an Australian commercial real estate company and operator of shopping centres. It was founded with the spin-off of the Westfield Group in 2014, where assets in Australia and New Zealand formed the Scentre Group, and assets in the United Kingdom and United States formed the Westfield Corporation. It was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol "WFD".

Contents

Westfield accepted a $32.8 billion takeover offer from Unibail-Rodamco, excluding Westfield Labs, on 12 December 2017. The takeover was completed, and the parent company was renamed Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, in June 2018. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Westfield undertook ownership, development, design, construction, funds/asset management, property management, leasing, and marketing activities for its centres. Its portfolio included investment interests in 40 shopping centres across the United States and Europe, encompassing around 7,500 retail outlets and total assets under management in excess of $28.5 billion. It also operated Westfield Labs, a technology and design arm based inside the Westfield San Francisco Centre.

History

The first development of the Westfield Corporation was named "Westfield Place", and opened in July 1959 in Blacktown. The name Westfield is derived from "west", related to the West-Sydney location, and "field", due to having been located on subdivided farmland. The centre was opened by John Saunders and Frank Lowy. [8]

The company was floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1960 and built another five centres in New South Wales before expanding into Victoria and Queensland in 1966–67. [9]

The expansion into the United States began with the purchase of the Trumbull Shopping Park in Connecticut in 1977, and was followed by three centres in California, Michigan, and Connecticut in 1980 and three centres in California, New Jersey, and Long Island, New York, in 1986. [9] In 1994, Westfield collaborated with General Growth and Whitehall Real Estate to purchase 19 centres for US$1 billion. By 2005, the company owned centres in 15 US states. [9]

In the 1990s, Westfield began a major expansion to New Zealand, where they mostly bought existing shopping centres of the Fletchers company and progressively rebranded them. In 2007, with Westfield Albany, the company opened a new centre in the country. [10]

On 9 May 2006, Westfield announced the sale of eight United States shopping centres which it deemed to fit outside its strategic plan, to Centro Properties Group. [11]

In 2010, the Westfield Group split 50% of its Australian and New Zealand assets into the Westfield Retail Trust, trading on the Australian Stock Exchange as WRT. This trust was folded into the Scentre Group during the 2014 split.

In December 2017, the Westfield Board announced that it was recommending a takeover of the company by Unibail-Rodamco, one of the largest real estate companies in Europe, for a reported $24.8 billion USD. The takeover was completed, and the parent company was renamed Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, in June 2018.

Properties

Westfield had interests in over 100 shopping malls worldwide, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Sweden, The Netherlands and Italy. [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

Westfield may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westfield Group</span> Australian shopping centre group

Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio; and Westfield Corporation, which continued to own and operate the American and European centre portfolio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitgift Centre</span> Shopping centre in Croydon, England

The Whitgift Centre is a large shopping centre in the town centre of Croydon, opening in stages between 1968 and 1970. The centre comprises 1,302,444 sq ft (121,001 m2) of retail space, and was the largest covered shopping development in Greater London until the opening of Westfield London at White City in 2008. The Whitgift Centre has a monthly footfall of 2.08 million. The complex includes an office development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Lowy</span> Australian businessman, founder and chairman of Westfield

Sir Frank P. Lowy is an Australian-Israeli businessman of Jewish Slovak-Hungarian origins and the former long-time chairman of Westfield Corporation, a global shopping centre company with US$29.3 billion of assets under management in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe. In June 2018 Westfield Corporation was acquired by French company Unibail-Rodamco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westfield Whitford City</span> Shopping centre in Perth, Western Australia

Westfield Whitford City, formerly Whitford City Shopping Centre, is a major shopping centre located in Hillarys, east of St. Mark's Anglican Community School in Perth, Western Australia. Built in 1977 on the former Red Cattle Ridge site at Marmion Avenue approximately 18 kilometres north of the Perth central business district, the centre is owned by the Scentre Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westfield Southcenter</span> Shopping mall in Tukwila, Washington

Westfield Southcenter, formerly known as Southcenter Mall, is a shopping mall located in Tukwila, Washington, United States. Owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, it is the largest shopping center in Washington state and the Pacific Northwest. The mall is anchored by Macy's, JCPenney, Nordstrom, and Sears, and also features an AMC movie theater, which opened in 2000. The mall's Sears is among the last stores in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westfield Galleria at Roseville</span> Shopping mall in Roseville, California

Westfield Galleria at Roseville is a two-level, 1.3 million-square-foot indoor upscale shopping mall in Roseville, California, United States, and is owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. The property is anchored by department stores Macy’s, JCPenney, and Nordstrom, a 14-screen Cinemark theater, a Round 1 Entertainment center, large-scale Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel furniture stores, and the sole Northern California-area locations of luxury retailers Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Tiffany & Co., and Saint Laurent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Promenade (shopping mall)</span> Shopping mall in California, U.S.

The Promenade is a dead shopping mall in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westfield Century City</span> Shopping mall in California, U.S.

Westfield Century City is a two-level, 1,300,000-square-foot (120,000 m2) outdoor shopping mall in the Century City commercial district in Los Angeles, California. A property of the Westfield Corporation, the mall features Nordstrom, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, in addition to a Gelson's supermarket, and a 15-screen AMC multiplex. The mall features prominent specialty retailers such as Good American, Oak + Fort, AllSaints, Madewell, CAMP, Kendra Scott, Sandro, Reiss, Under Armour, and Buck Mason.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westfield Plaza Bonita</span> Shopping mall in National City, California

Westfield Plaza Bonita commonly known as Plaza Bonita and Plaza is a shopping mall located in National City, California, and is owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. Anchor stores at the center include Macy's, JCPenney, Crunch Fitness, Target, Nordstrom Rack and one vacant space once occupied by John’s Incredible Pizza.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westfield West Lakes</span> Shopping mall in West Lakes, South Australia

Westfield West Lakes is a shopping centre located in West Lakes, South Australia. It contains approximately 260 stores, with anchor tenants David Jones, Harris Scarfe, Kmart, Coles, Target, Woolworths and JB Hi-Fi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield</span> French real estate company

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield SE is a French multinational commercial real estate company headquartered in Paris, France. Its history originates with the formation of two separate shopping centre operators, Unibail and Rodamco Europe, which merged in 2007 and became a societas Europaea in 2009. The company acquired Australian shopping centre operator Westfield Corporation in June 2018.

Broward Mall is a shopping mall in Plantation, Florida.

Urban Retail Properties is a third-party retail management company based in Chicago. The company develops shopping complexes and other retail centers across the United States, in addition to help managing retail space development. The company partnered with Long Runn Urban Development Group in Shanghai in 2008. As of 2021 it owns over 50 shopping centers. A news article in 2003 described Urban Retail as "the nation’s largest third-party retail manager".

Scentre GroupLimited is a shopping centre company with retail destinations operating under the Westfield brand in Australia and New Zealand. The corporation undertakes ownership, development, design, construction, funds/asset management, property management, leasing, and marketing activities for its centres. The group was created in June 2014 when the Westfield Group separated its American and European businesses from its operations in Australia and New Zealand. The company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and had a shopping centre portfolio that includes investment interests in 42 shopping centres across Australia and New Zealand in 2019, encompassing around 12,544 retail outlets and total assets under management in excess of A$39.4 billion in 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Lowy</span> Australian executive

Steven Mark Lowy is the former co-Chief Executive Officer of Westfield Corporation, a leading global shopping centre company that was acquired by French company Unibail-Rodamco in 2018 in what was one of the largest transactions in Australian corporate history. His principal activities now focus on investments associated with the Lowy family’s private company, Lowy Financial Group, as well as a number of philanthropic and community roles including as Chairman of the World Board of Trustees of Keren Heysod-United Israel Appeal and President of the Hakoah Club.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westfield Mall of the Netherlands</span> Shopping mall in Leidschendam

Westfield Mall of the Netherlands is a shopping mall located in Leidschendam in the Netherlands. With a total retail floor area of 117,000 m2 (1,260,000 sq ft) it is the largest shopping mall in the Netherlands.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Westfield Senior Management". www.westfieldcorp.com. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Interactive Investor". westfield2016sustainability.onyxinteract.com. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  3. ↑ Morgan, Elysse; Verrender, Ian (12 December 2017). "Westfield: Lowy family sells shopping centre empire to French property giant for $32 billion". ABC News . Australia. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  4. ↑ "Westfield agrees to $32.8 billion takeover by European giant Unibail-Rodamco". SBS News . AAP. 12 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  5. ↑ "French group to take over Westfield malls for $15.7 billion". Daily Herald. Chicago. AP. 12 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  6. ↑ "French bid would create $72bn shopping mall group". Financial Times . United Kingdom. 12 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  7. ↑ Cummins, Carolyn (12 December 2017). "End of an era: Westfield accepts $32.8bn offer". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  8. ↑ "Westfield Stirs (1956–1960)" (PDF). Westfield History: About us. p. 14. Retrieved 5 January 2007.
  9. 1 2 3 Sammartino, André; Van Ruth, Frances (2007). "The Westfield Group". In Dick, H.; Merrett, D. (eds.). The Internationalisation Strategies of Small-Country Firms: The Australian Experience of Globalisation. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. pp. 308–318.
  10. ↑ Gibson, Anne (23 August 2007). "Countdown under way for Albany supermall rollout". The New Zealand Herald.
  11. ↑ "Centro Watt Enters Mall Business; US Platform Well-Positioned to Continue Growth". www.businesswire.com. 11 May 2006. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  12. ↑ "Westfield". Unibail - Rodamco - Westfield.
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