This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
A GROUP of small business owners protesting who stripped down to their underwear have overshadowed an upbeat and optimistic Lend Lease Annual General Meeting yesterday.
The Erina Fair Tenants Action Group consisting of 30 business shop owners claim Lend Lease’s redevelopment of the Erina Fair shopping centre on the Central Coast was responsible for the collapse of 80 small businesses.
The action group’s spokeswoman Joanne Howarth, who previously operated the Arizona Bar & Grill at Erina Fair, said the owners want compensation because the redevelopment caused shops, restaurants and cafes to lose money and close down.
But Lend Lease chief operating officer Ross Taylor said the protesters were blatantly misrepresents the facts surrounding the failure of the business in an attempt to extract undue compensation from the centre’s owners and manager.
“Lend Lease is very disappointed that the former operators, Joanne Howarth and her business partner, have sought to leverage commercial advantage by waging a misleading press campaign, even though Lend Lease had provided substantial financial and marketing support to help them establish their business venture at Erina Fair.
“Erina Fair property managers, Lend Lease Property Management (Australia) Pty Ltd, said today that the owners of the now failed Arizona Bar & Grill restaurant were experienced operators with other establishments in Sydney, who attempted to introduce a new up-market restaurant which ultimately did not meet its market,” he added.
“The most telling evidence is that a new restaurant operator, who had taken over the Arizona Bar & Grill space, had changed the concept to a family restaurant and is trading very successfully,” Taylor said. “In fact, the new operator has been so successful that he has taken an additional tenancy in the same precinct of the centre, known as The Hive, and is currently fitting out a second family restaurant.”
Taylor also said a Australian Competition and Consumers’ Commission investigation instigated by Joanne Howarth, made no adverse findings against Lend Lease.
Protesters aside, Lend Lease’s chief executive Greg Clarke foreshadowed a pre-tax profit growth of 15-20% for the 2008 financial year.
Clarke also announced the group is exploring retail and community development opportunities in India and China.
In addition to being under-represented in the region, Clarke said China and India have an expanding middle class who are looking for better-quality homes and an enhanced shopping experience.
“We are looking at potential strategies for entering those regions… We are trying to find out what China and India would look like in five to 10 years’ time so we can generate longer-term earnings from longer-term growth in those economies,” he added.
Meanwhile, Clarke said Lend Lease does not have expansion plans in the Middle East.
“We have a very good base of secured, major projects in the Asia Pacific, the UK, Europe, the Middle East and USA, which will deliver profits out to 2020,” he added.
In the United Kingdom, Clarke said the group has taken steps to address problems that led to the $199 million provisions being made for some UK construction projects in the first half of fiscal 2007.
“We are now comfortable with the program and outlook for the Manchester Hospitals project. The other UK projects on which losses had been incurred are now either complete or well advanced,” he said.
The group’s current work in hand in the UK include the £5.5 billion ($A12.62 billion) Stratford City project for the 2012 London Olympic Games; the £1.5 billion ($A3.44 billion) redevelopment of Elephant and Castle in London; and £700 million ($A1.61 billion) town centre redevelopment at Preston.
Apart from the UK, the group’s other regional Bovis Lend Lease operations reported good performances.
Asia Pacific has continued a strong new work win rate including the $470 million redevelopment of Top Ryde shopping centre in Sydney; the $850 million redevelopment of Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne; and the $180 million redevelopment of Robina Town centre on the Gold Coast.
In the United States, the operation achieved a 20% increase in net profit.
Australian Property Journal
