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.