Malls of the Future Summit

Reading the consumer is paramount if retail bricks and mortar is to pivot and remain relevant. The competitive environment is changing, forcing a rethink about the industry, from how many and what kind of tenants CESs need to house and how large a CES must be in order to be successful, to how, why and where sites are selected, the role of anchor stores, and the necessity of incorporating non-traditional elements such as housing, entertainment and healthcare into CES design. 

• Future Cities & Central Experience Districts – exploring how shopping precincts are set to transform communities and deliver on evolving expectations 

• What the future will look like for the sub regional shopping precincts as the retail market continues to transform 
• Transforming malls to family entertainment/consumer experience centres 
• Customer centricity – differentiating the customer offering, with a focus on experience and convenience 
• Design, layout and delivery – exploring new formats and commercial real estate opportunities 
• ESG as a driver to create healthy and sustainable spaces 

Jace Tyrrell, Chief Executive Officer, New Sydney Waterfront Company

RETAIL IN FLUX – Embracing change in the retail landscape. E-Commerce, Covid and a looming recession are causing massive disruption to Malls and Retail Real Estate. Once thriving hubs of consumerism, retail stores have been forced to rethink the purpose of bricks and mortar shopping centres and their continued relevancy in social thinking. In this session we gather leading industry professionals to talk about the past, present and the future of shopping Centres. 

• Has the role of the mall changed forever and how? 

• What are the implications of e-commerce on city CSDs and the national economy?  
• What role are tenants playing in defining the new Shopping Centre landscape? 
• What can landlords do to enhance their mall design to attract and retain tenants? 
• Examining the role technology plays in making retail spaces clean, healthy, attractive, and more sustainable. 
• What does all this mean for retail landlords, investors and agencies and how can they work together to enhance and revitalise the Mall and Shopping Centres?

Panellists:

Paul Zahra, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Retail Association

Ian Bailey, Managing Director, Kmart Group Australia

Chakyl Camal, CEO and Co-Founder, Panthera Group

Brian Walker, Chief Executive Officer, Retail Doctor Group

Facilitated by:

Jace Tyrrell, Chief Executive Officer, New Sydney Waterfront Company

The world continues to change, and the very nature of shopping has evolved exponentially. Unsurprisingly, retail and people’s expectations of what the mall of the future looks like are changing.  Work/life is no longer a balance, but an integration and malls are no longer a place for solely consuming – but a place for experiences too. This talk will examine the Futuristic holy grail: Unifying humans and hardware in the race to a ‘Tech- focused’ Mall. 

• Treating the retail asset as a data farm to create digital personas of the customers and tenants 
• Digital platforms to provide new types of offerings such as plug and play stores – Kogan, eBay, Iconic etc 
• Unification of in-store and on-line merchandise 
• Delivering retail in highly immersive, interactive, and experiential formats to encourage customer spend. 
• Seamlessly integrating technology and architecture to deliver a sense of place and increase community activation 
• Latest tech trends such as E-wallets, Chatbots AR and Facial Recognition

Chakyl Camal, CEO and Co-Founder, Panthera Group

The future for retail space looks increasingly uncertain, as people have been forced to stay home, increasing their online shopping habits in a bid to avoid visiting shops and catching covid. This could significantly affect retail real estate investment trusts, or REITs, at least in the short to medium term, according to analysts. However, some are still somewhat positive on the longer-term outlook, despite E-commerce increasing pre-covid as lifestyle habits impacted shopping behaviour.   

We invite some of Australia’s leading retail fund managers to lift the bonnet and deep dive   into retail real estate trends from the viewpoint of investors and the capital markets.  

• Examining the short-, medium- and long-term prospects for retail space. What are the current occupancy rates, impacts on leases, price per sqm and yields? 
• Is there evidence of a flight to quality in the retail market and a longer-term structural shift to certain types of retail assets, and what sort of retail assets are in demand? 
• What can landlords do to influence their outcome in the Centre redevelopment contest?  
• How are retail landlords adjusting to the push for net zero, and how much of an influence is this having on tenant choice? 

Panellists:

Christine Kelly, Deputy Fund Manager, Head of Retail Finance, Charter Hall Retail REIT

Anne MacSporran, Fund Manager, Lendlease APPF Retail

Simon Dyer, Retail Asset Manager, Centuria Capital Group

Simon Baird, Deputy Fund Manager, IRAPT, ISPT

Facilitated by:

Ben Burston, Chief Economist, Knight Frank

Tech 1: Patrick Harlalka, Investment Manager, Mall of The Future
Tech 2: Chantel Zamparutti,Director, Sales ANZ, Pathzz
Tech 3:
Tech 4:

Facilitated by:

Melissa Hardy, Director, Business Performance & Technology, Real Estate, QIC

Sustainability is an increasingly important issue for many people, and companies, institutions and governments are responding. Consumers have taken up the baton, making it even more important for the property industry and its businesses to design, build and operate with ESG at the forefront of strategy, operations and service delivery as momentum gathers pace. As consumers and investors increasingly demand more sustainable shopping experiences, there is an opportunity for the industry to act for the benefit of the environment, the community, and the economy.  

This panel will examine how using a centralised approach, making goal – based decisions and tracking/reporting results are key to accelerating and excelling in the field of ESG. 

• Assessing the impact of ESG on Retail Real Estate and how it has evolved over the last 24 months? 

• What would the S in ESG look like in Shopping Centres?  
• How is technology playing a key role in addressing sustainability issues and enabling Shopping Centres to tread more lightly on the planet? 
• Examining developments in renewable power agreements, integrated waste and long-term environmental plans. 
• Looking at the success of central analytics which support portfolios with data insights which in turn are driving big improvements in NABERS and energy efficiency. 
• From construction to facilities management – what can each player in the Retail ecosystem do better to drive sustainable outcomes and who is responsible for the carbon footprint at each stage of the ecosystem? 

• Examining how sustainability is driving tenant choice when selecting retail centres and consumers decision making around where to shop? 

Panellists:

Tim Weale, National Sustainability Manager, SCA Property Group

Varun Nair, General Manager – Operations and Environment, Scentre Group

Karen Woo, Sustainability Manager Community, Vicinity Centres

David Hopper, Joint Managing Director, Kaipara Property Group

Roundtable 1: Extracting maximum value from retail assets through diversification
Led by: Claire Bowles, Regenerative Development Lead, i2C Architects  

Roundtable 2: Future retail trends under a social lens 
Led by: Tully Walter, Futures Strategist, SOON Future Studies 

Roundtable 3: Harnessing data in developing Malls of the Future
Led by: Chantel Zamparutti, Director, Sales ANZ, Pathzz

Roundtable 4: Examining the growth in demand and popularity in retail precincts                            
Led by:

Customer centricity – Differentiating the consumer offering, with a focus on experience, convenience, and social impact is now crucial to retail longevity. Shopping Centres need to morph into consumer engagement spaces (CESs) – transformed mixed-use commercial offerings designed to meet the needs of new and future generations of shoppers. Catering to a customer base proud of its diversity, less interested in owning things than in having experiences and accessing functionalities and who demand the right to co-develop and design the goods and services they buy.       

• Aesthetics, cleanliness, safety, and curb-side convenience 
• Personalised shopping experiences 

• Sustainability as in/by/through imbedded in the shopping experience 
• Capturing brand and bricks and mortar loyalty by catering to millennials now 
• Flipping tech from being purely logistical and transactional to leveraging retail technologies to interface and communicate with consumers armed with their own shopping technologies

Panellists:

Dave Moreton, Regional General Manager, GPT

Kieron Ritchard, Chief Executive Officer, Fantastic Furniture

Carly Whitelaw, General Manager Property, Munro Footwear Group

Facilitated by:

Leif Olson, Head of Retail Leasing Australia, CBRE

In this case study we learn all about Ed.Square – a unique urban neighbourhood where elevated contemporary living is surrounded by walking paths, cycleways, multiple neighbourhood parks and Ed.Square Town Centre, a shopping, dining and entertainment precinct. Ed.Square has set the benchmark for Mixed Use Retail and Residential living – with its vibrant village feel, leafy surrounds and all that residents and shoppers will need at their fingertips. Joanna will walk us through the journey behind the planning, design and build of this innovative new Mixed-Use precinct.

Joanna Russell, General Manager- Retail Development, Frasers Property Australia

In this session we look at how landlords have a role in creating places with purpose. We examine the role mixed use precincts play in creating complex community ecosystems that will ultimately encourage customers back into the mall. While e-commerce is important, getting more people back into malls is also key to the success and longevity of the CBD, Suburban Shopping Centres, and the Australian economy so we examine what more can be done to address this. 

• The new role of the mall as a cultural and collaboration hub – how can landlords enhance their buildings to support this role for their tenants. 
• Assessing retail design and location – what do tenants really want? 
• Understanding the link between employee health, wellness, productivity, and the impact on revenue 
• Redesigning store formats 
• From CSD to CES (Central Experience Shopping Centre) – How is Australia following in the footsteps of Asia, Europe and America and shifting towards integrated mixed-use Shopping precincts?  
• Partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions – exploring the new types of partnerships emerging between traditional retail landlords, brokers/agencies and “shopping as a service” vendors as a new Shopping Centre blueprint emerges. 

Panellists:

Jon Savell, General Manager, Property Management, Woolworths Group

Marnie Devereux, General Manager Operations, Retail Development, Lendlease

Luke Young, General Manager – Retail, QIC

Sarah Blackmore, Head of Asset Management, SRL

Kelvin Taylor, Project Director - Associate, Diadem

Facilitated by:

Tony Doherty, Head of Retail, Property & Asset Management – Australia, JLL