In 1994 the Neeta City Shopping Centre in Fairfield Sydney was acquired comprising a Target Discount Department Store, Woolworth’s Supermarket, Bi Lo Supermarket and 67 speciality shops.
Less than half of the 22,000 sqm of net leasable space was occupied, sales were depressed and most of the remaining speciality retailers were leaving within 6 months.
The customer traffic flow design was flawed with too many entrances and half the centre was poorly anchore

d leading to virtually one end of the centre almost vacant. Coupled with poor management the centre was unviable.
After a complete redesign and renovation, Woolworth’s relocated to anchor the underperforming end of the centre with a larger supermarket providing a wider range of merchandise.
The old supermarket site was divided into smaller tenancies including Best and Less, Westpac, Retravision and many others.
Sports girl, Australia Post, McDonald’s, Sydney Water, Tandy and many more tenants were attracted to complete the tenancy mix.
The centre was now fully occupied and trading very well.
It was sold in February 1996 for more than 3 times its purchase price 18 months earlier

Northbridge Plaza Shopping Centre in Sydney was a landmark project managed and redeveloped by H Investments, under the supervision of owner and manager, John Hayson. Purchased in 1987, the centre had several structural and performance issues. John took over his family business of real estate development in 1988 and completely transformed the way this centre looked and operated.
When purchased, the centre had a Woolsworth Supermarket and 34 speciality shops. The first reconstruction of the Northbridge Plaza shopping centre was completed in 1989, by correcting design flaws, redesigning the entire plaza and adding a new tenancy mix, through intensive management by John Hayson. The major redesign work was done in the internal mall area and new quality retailers were brought in to meet customer needs. After 4 major renovations, 11 shop additions and tenancy mix upgrades, the shopping centre was sold off in 2004. Moreover, additional land was purchased to extend Woolworth’s and create supermarket on the North Shore of Sydney. Since the redevelopment, the centre witnessed a significant improvement in sales and customer traffic.
Another underperforming shopping centre acquired by John Hayson was the Neeta City Shopping Centre in Fairfield, Sydney in 1994. The centre comprised of a Target Discount Department Store, Woolworth’s Supermarket, Bi Lo Supermarket and 67 speciality shops. Here too, the sales were depressed, customers were not coming in and retailers were moving out. The flawed customer traffic flow was caused because of too many entrances and poor anchoring of the centre, where one end of the centre was left almost vacant. During the redesign and redevelopment work, Woolworth’s was relocated to the underperforming end of the centre to give a good reason to customers to visit that end area of the centre. The old supermarket site was divided into smaller tenancies including Best and Less, Westpac, Retravision and many others. Since the redevelopment, new tenancies have been attracted, and the centre is trading well.
H Investments also conducted redevelopment work for Woolworths supermarket in Scone NSW. The company owned and jointly constructed a new free-standing supermarket in the city, offering new shopping opportunities to the locals in Scone.
The company has also been one of the leading real estate development firms in the residential sector. Some of the major residential projects developed by the company include Styx Mill Estates, Silverstream Estates, Gateway Estates and Park Terrace Apartments.

The Director of H Investments International Pty Limited is John Hayson.

John Hayson is an experienced developer who for the past 24 years has planned and developed major retail, residential, and entire suburban developments in Sydney, regional NSW, Brisbane and in New Zealand.
John understands town centre design in the retail environment and how to establish a sense of community in    residential developments through best planning practices.

John has a Bachelor of Business Degree in Accounting from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), and a Post Graduate Diploma in Securities from the Securities Institute of Australia. He has been an Associate of the Australian Society of Accountants – Certified Practising Accountant (AASA CPA), a Registered Tax Agent, an Associate of the Securities Institute of Australia (ASIA), and an Associate of the Australian Institute of Management (AIM).

Early in his career in the 1980s, John Hayson was an investment banker with the Bill Acceptance Corporation, Schroders Australia, and BT Australia.

John has consulted to Institutions on many shopping centres, and has also advised local Councils on the redesign of town centres. He also has been a speaker for the retail industry including the Foodweek conference on Retail in Sydney in 2002 alongside overseas and Australian speakers. He was the keynote speaker on retail regulation at the NZ Planning Institute Conference in 2008, and the Speaker on Retail at the Small Town Conference in NZ in 2009.