Council leader welcomes Westfield's 'commitment to city' (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
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Westfield boss says Bradford scheme part of £3 billion UK investment plan
7:00am Tuesday 31st July 2012 in News
By James Rush, T&A Reporter
An artist’s impression of Westfield’s proposed Broadway scheme for Bradford
The leader of Bradford Council has welcomed a further sign of Westfield ’s commitment to Bradford and the wider UK market.
In an interview with an Australian newspaper, the co-chief executive of Westfield , Steven Lowy, said the company was looking to invest a further £3 billion into Britain in the next few years to boost its portfolio of upmarket shopping centres in the country.
The report states the investment was set to go towards the Broadway centre in Bradford, the expansion of its £2 billion Westfield London centre in White City and a proposal to redevelop a shopping centre south of London.
Councillor David Green said the announcement confirmed the commitment that the company, one of the world’s biggest shopping centre operators, had in Bradford.
He said:“The figures may be new but their commitment to the investment into the Bradford site isn’t new and it’s something that has been said time and time again by Westfield representatives in Bradford and by the Council because of our conversations with them.
“So while the figure itself may be new we have always been confident that Westfield have retained their commitment to Bradford.”
Westfield has investment interests in 111 shopping centres in Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Brazil and Britain.
Earlier this month the Telegraph & Argus reported how a “significant milestone” had been made for the long-awaited scheme when Marks & Spencer signed up as the final anchor tenant.
The Australian developer, which is still yet to give a date for when work will begin on the £275 million scheme, will lease a 63,000 sq ft anchor store to M&S and has also confirmed retailer Next as a tenant.
Agreements have now been reached for more than a third of retail space available at the site. Debenhams has already signed as an anchor tenant.
e-mail: james.rush@telegraphandargus.co.uk
Twitter: @jamesrushTandA
