Australian shopping centre giant Westfield's results this morning provided little in the way of an update on progress at the Stratford City shopping centre, but what little there was proved encouraging.
The group posted an A$925m (£474m) pre-tax loss in the six months ended 30 June thanks mainly to an A$2.5bn (£1.28bn) reduction in the value of the group's property portfolio. Operating profit during the period increased by 18.1% to A$1.4bn (£717m).
At Stratford, Westfield said it was receiving strong interest in its "speciality stores" at the development and that much of that was coming from major tenants at its Westfield London store.
It really was a little early in the day for The Independent to be writing a couple of months ago that the group was struggling to the locate tenants for the scheme.
Today Westfield said leasing will officially begin in early 2010 following agreements for the speciality stores and we hear that major fashion retailers - including Sir Philip Green's Arcadia Group, Next and River Island- are already hammering out potential deals.
Any talk of a major problem with leasing space is undoubtedly premature.
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