Shopping centres hit expansion button

The new Lakeside shopping centre, where WA's first new Myer buidling in 20 years will be built

With four years of approvals and planning behind them since caps on retail floor space were lifted, shopping centre owners in Perth are now in expansion mode.

Owners AMP Capital Shopping Centres and Lend Lease are the latest to cross the line.

Tomorrow, AMP Capital's Ocean Keys Shopping Centre in Clarkson opens its $108 million expansion and later this month Lend Lease's Lakeside Joondalup Shopping City finishes its two-stage $300 million expansion, which will include the first new Myer store in Perth for 20 years.

The $750 million development application for AMP's Garden City Booragoon is due early next year and the Scentre Group is moving through the planning process with the recent lodging of a development proposal for public comment for Carousel Shopping Centre with the City of Canning.

Last month Federation Centres completed an 8967sqm expansion at Warnbro Centre and the Perron Group opened its $100 million expansion at Cockburn Gateway Shopping City.

In 2010 the State Government removed floor caps, which had kept retail space at shopping centres under 80,000sqm, as part of its planning document Directions 2031 and Beyond.

The removal of the caps ended a frustrating barrier for shopping centre owners and set the scene for the wave of expansions under way or being planned.

AMP Capital Shopping Centres State development manager Scott Nugent said the cluster of expansions was unusual for an industry where expansions tended to be staggered.

"In Perth, because everyone was held back in the starter's gate until the policy was lifted, everyone is playing catch up, " Mr Nugent said. "We are just one of many operators who are trying to pull their socks up and get an exciting offer on the ground."

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Shopping centres hit expansion button