Shopping centre owner Westfield Group
(ASX:WDC) says it expects to commence around $1 billion of development projects in 2010 due to the improving environment.
Approximately $800 million of this will be in Australia, with the remaining $200 million in the US.
Westfield says it is undertaking pre-development activity on around $10 billion of future development opportunities.
Post 2010, the group says it expects to commence between $500 million and $1 billion of development projects a year.
The company says sales in Australia for the year to March 31, 2010 rose 2.1%, up 2% in the March quarter, compared to the same time last year.
The film industry was a big driver of the result with cinema’s contributing over 22% in the three months to March 31, 2010.
In the US, where Westfield owns 55 shopping centres, sales per square foot rose 5.3%, an encouraging sign of recovery for the US economy.
In 2009 Westfield Group posted a narrower loss of $457.8 million compared to 2008’s loss of close to $2.2 billion.
