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Giant mall owner Westfield is plastering empty shopfronts in some of its centres with pictures of families, dancing shoppers and diners.
The images have sprung up in a number of centres including Downtown at the foot of Queen St in Auckland's CBD and Takapuna's Shore City.
Westfield spokeswoman Deb McGhie said the images were not a bid to hide empty shops. Instead, they were hiding busy workers. The hoardings were only being erected while a new tenancy fitout was under way, she said.
The images were also being used on hoardings around the exterior of Downtown where AMP was replacing a canopy as part of its upgrade of neighbouring office tower 21 Queen St, she said.
Inside the centres, posters were used to shield shoppers from work being carried out after one tenant left and the next arrived, she said.
"That's usually when we do a change-out with the tenancy remix. While the work is being done behind, we have to create a hoarding ... It is part of our health and safety standards to protect shoppers from any fitout work or works being undertaken to a store in our centres."
Westfield had less than 0.5 per cent of its portfolio vacant. A bank had signed up for one of the poster-decorated shops and the images were only up until that new outlet was finished and ready to trade, she said.
Bruce Sheppard of the Shareholders Association believes New Zealand landlords will see tenants vanish with the tougher economic climate. He blamed them for charging far too much rent. This was particularly the case in many shopping centres, he said. Rents are more than $1000/sq m annually in smaller prominent shops in the centres.
A Property Council retail conference in Auckland last year discussed the spectre of dark zones in malls.
Westfield has 12 malls worth about $3 billion. It leases 1600 shops and is the country's largest retail landlord, controlling 400,000sq m of floorspace in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.
The Westfield Group said this week it would donate A$1 million ($1.25 million) to the Victorian Government's bushfire appeal fund.
