KEY POINTS:
The world's largest shopping centre owner, Westfield, wants to expand here by developing more shops and adding to its $3 billion asset base.
So says Stephen Lowy, 44, joint managing director of Westfield Group, here from Sydney yesterday for the opening of the $210 million Albany centre after a partial opening two months ago.
That new mall has 5.2ha of indoor floor space and although Prime Minister Helen Clark opened it yesterday, the 1800-seat cinemas will not open until next year.
Lowy said that in the last seven years, Westfield had spent an annual average $175 million and it planned to continue.
"We've got 12 centres here with a value in excess of $3 billion so on that alone, we'd be in the top 10 New Zealand companies if we were listed [here]."
Lowy is one of Australia's richest men, with his family's fortune estimated to be at least A$5 billion ($6 billion), second only to Australian publisher James Packer with A$7 billion.
Lowy, a son of Westfield founder and holocaust survivor Frank Lowy, is also a member of Prime Minister John Howard's Business-Government Advisory Group which consults on anti-terrorism strategies and national security issues.
The former US investment banker is president of Art Gallery of New South Wales, a director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute and a director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy.
Westfield's annual report showed he earned A$8.4 million last year, up from A$4.9 million in 2005.
Lowy yesterday emphasised his company's expansion plans here, particularly at Albany where surplus land will allow far more shops to be built soon.
"It's endless. What limits us is only demand of the population," Lowy said.
Westfield is expanding its Newmarket centre, adding a multiplex cinema and further shops, he said. At Riccarton in Christchurch, it is developing a second level and the expansion of Manukau is being completed.
But the growth here is being far outstripped by a global drive, with Westfield opening five new malls in the last month.
Four weeks ago, it opened the £340 million ($917 million) centre in Britain's Derby, followed by two new centres in Australia at Newcastle and Brisbane. Yesterday was New Zealand's turn with Albany and tomorrow Westfield will open a new centre in Annapolis, Maryland in the US.
"So that's about A$1.5 billion of shopping centres opened in four weeks."
To cater for that rapid expansion, Westfield was drawing many executives from New Zealand, Lowy said.
For example, John Widdup, director of Westfield New Zealand since 2001, has just been appointed to run Westfield America, in charge of 9000 shops in 59 centres worth US$18.7 billion ($24.2 billion). Widdup left Parnell for Sydney about two years ago but has now shifted to the US.
And Justin Lynch, an Australian at Westfield in Auckland for the last seven years, has stepped into Widdup's role. Lynch was this week appointed director of Westfield New Zealand.
Lowy said Jason James, a former leasing manager at Glenfield, had shifted to Britain to run the new Derby centre.
But Lowy baulked at the suggestion that Westfield developed formula-style malls which were much the same throughout New Zealand.
"I would strongly disagree with that. I don't think Albany's the same as any other centre. Every product we do, we challenge ourselves to make it better than the last one," he said.
Mall giant
* Westfield is the world's largest listed retail property group.
* Manages assets worth $73.1 billion.
* Malls in Europe, United States and Australasia.
* Owns 12 malls in NZ worth $3 billion.
