The Westfield Group
 |
|
| Public | |
| Traded as | ASX: WDC |
| Industry | Real estate investment trusts |
| Genre | Shopping malls |
| Successors |
Scentre Group Westfield Corporation |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Founder | John Saunders Frank Lowy |
| Defunct | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, United States |
|
Number of locations
|
United States United Kingdom Italy Croatia |
|
Key people
|
Peter S. Lowy (co-CEO) Steven M. Lowy (co-CEO) |
| Revenue |
 US$ 833 million (2014) |
|
US$ 391 million (2014) |
|
|
US$ 461 million (2014) |
|
| Total assets |
US$ 28.5 billion (2014) |
|
Number of employees
|
2,000+ (2014) |
| Website | westfieldcorp |
Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which now owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio; and Westfield Corporation which owns and operates the UK, Europe and US portfolio.
Westfield Group undertook ownership, development, design, construction, funds/asset management, property management, leasing, and marketing activities. The multinational company was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and had interests in and operated one of the world's largest shopping centre portfolios with investment interests in 103 shopping centres across Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Italy, Croatia and Brazil, encompassing around 23,000 retail outlets and total assets under management in excess of A$63 billion.
The Westfield Group had origins in the western suburbs of Sydney. The first development was named "Westfield Place", and opened in July 1959 in Blacktown. The name Westfield is derived from "west" related to the West Sydney location, and "field" due to having located on subdivided farmland. The centre was opened by John Saunders and Frank Lowy.
The company was floated on the in 1960 and built another five centres in New South Wales before expanding into Victoria and Queensland in 1966-67.
The expansion into the United States began with the purchase of the Trumbull Shopping Park in Connecticut in 1977, and was followed by three centres in California, Michigan and Connecticut in 1980 and three centres in California, New Jersey and Long Island, New York in 1986. In 1994 Westfield joined together with General Growth and Whitehall Real Estate to purchase 19 centres for US$1 billion. Westfield seems to form clusters of centres on particular cities or within a small number of states. They built considerable holdings on the east coast and in California before expanding in the Mid-West. By 2005, the company owned centres in 15 US states.
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Wikipedia