Redevelopment to start as early as May.
Owners of the Spotlight retail group, Zac Fried, and his uncle Morry Fraid, have gained control of the majority of Masters’ development portfolio. They have secured exclusive rights to begin building homemaker centres from May 2017.
Home Consortium snatched up 61 stores and 21 development sites when Woolworths offloaded them in August. As well as being a partner in the overall consortium, Fried told BusinessDay Spotlight Property Group had picked up 19 of the 21 development sites, with the two remaining sites in Sydney staying with Home Consortium.
Most of the sites, concentrated on Australia’s eastern seaboard apart from one in Perth, would be converted to homemaker centres, although some had residential development potential as well, Fried told media.
“We will start doing stuff hopefully by May next year if it all goes to plan. There’s a number of sites we want to start building on straight away in Sydney and Queensland, some of the larger sites,” he said. The acquisition would boost Spotlight’s development portfolio by 50% with an appetite for more homemaker centres, particularly in NSW. “I’ve been waiting for some of this land for a long time.”