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Shopping centre manager IMF New Zealand plans to spend $15 million upgrading two Auckland malls bought from an investor in the past two years.
Retail Property Group bought malls at Milford and Birkenhead from Tsiun Yih Tseng's Formosa Property Holdings.
Now, Retail's mall and investment manager, IMF, is about to embark on expansion and refurbishment projects at the two malls.
Allan McGregor, IMF's chief executive, said on Monday that his firm would refurbish and expand the Highbury shopping centre at Birkenhead and would rejuvenate the Milford mall.
A fire at the mall last month has pushed IMF's plans ahead of the original schedule, McGregor said.
Hundreds of shoppers were evacuated on April 23. Ninety firefighters fought the blaze.
The 13,000sq m Milford mall has 58 shops and Highbury has 28 shops.
IMF plans to add 2500sq m at Highbury.
The centre's main street frontage would also be significantly improved, McGregor said.
"Our intention is to improve the offering in that location, and to knit the shopping centre a little better into its environment, particularly at Birkenhead Ave and Highbury bypass," he said.
Retail settled deals to buy Highbury at the end of 2005 and Milford at the end of last year, McGregor said.
The sales were low-profile, and attracted little public attention - "We like to fly low under the radar".
The group had property assets worth about $400 million, he said.
Retail Property Group owns the 50,000sq m Westgate Shopping Centre at the end of the Northwestern Motorway in Auckland and has plans to develop Hobsonville Village at 124 Hobsonville Rd.
It is planning to build a 6000sq m shopping centre on a 4ha flat site near the former Air Force base.
The group also has plans for a 49,000sq m shopping centre at Tauriko on a 24ha site near Tauranga.
McGregor said work started on an industrial project on the site eight months ago, but a private plan change was needed before the retail component of the undertaking could be built.
The Tauriko development is on the southwestern side of State Highway 29, close to the intersection with Cambridge Rd.
State Highway 29 is one of the main routes to Tauranga from Auckland and Waikato.
Retail Property Group also has the Fraser Cove shops in Tauranga and McGregor said it had expansion plans there too.
