May 2007 Cover Story

Following their purchase of Gosford Town Centre shopping centre (formerly Gosford Marketplace) in December last year for $55 million, Peak Property Holdings are now planning a further investment to expand and reinvigorate the Centre.

Peak plan to add 20,000 square metres of commercial and residential space in two towers above the centre, subject of course to Gosford Council approval.
Centre Manager, Deborah Lowndes, said the owners and management want to improve the centre to become the focal point of the Gosford CBD by attracting more business and more people. “We now have a renewed focus to make this Centre become an integral part of the Gosford business district,” said Ms Lowndes.
To carry out the external stage of the refurbishment Peak have plans to:
• Beautify the front of the building facing Henry Parry Drive by adding to the street furniture and enhancing the footpath area,
• Modernise the building exterior, refurbishing the exterior pebblecrete, changing the colour scheme to reflect the Centre’s modern interior and improving the exterior signage.
• Open up the ground floor for pedestrians making it easier to navigate the Centre. This will include the installation of an additional travelator, from the ground floor to the first floor, that will be encased in a glass box with modern lighting, and
• Open up the first floor Food Court area with an open deck overlooking Kibble Park.
Ms Lowndes said that she expected the DA process for these plans to take about three or four months.
Indicative of the company’s approach to the Centre and the local community, Peak will engage local professionals to work on their projects and have appointed local architects, Andrews Neil to carry out the redesign work.
The Centre’s anchor tenants include Coles Supermarket, Liquorland, The Warehouse plus other specialise (specialties) that include: GTC Newsagency, Veranda, Little’s Surf Centre, Rockman’s, OshKosh, Giordano, Gloria Jeans, Vplus Asian Supermarket (the largest Asian supermarket on the Coast), Aqua Beauty & Hair and others. In addition, Medicare has relocated Gosford office to the Centre.
Ms Lowndes said that an extensive promotional and advertising campaign for 2007/2008 is currently being put in place.
This includes the operation of their own Shopper Shuttle bus, with appropriate signage, that will operate in a loop from the railway station around the CBD. “In conjunction with It’s Easy Tours the Centre currently runs a bus in a wider loop that will take in retirement villages from Woy Woy and Umina to West Gosford, East Gosford and Erina all to bring in more shoppers from a wider area,” Ms Lowndes said. “We have also approached Council to have the buses and taxis stop at the Centre,” she said.
Peak Property Holdings bought the Centre, which has about 16,000 square metres of net lettable area, from the Beville Group in 2003 for an undisclosed sum.
Peak is part of a larger international property group and has a property portfolio in Australia in excess of $200 million. The portfolio includes three shopping centres and other commercial, retail and residential investments.
Investec Bank (Australia) Ltd, which has strong links to Peak, is a partner in the Gosford investment.

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