Reading Intl. Lands Anchors for Newmarket Project

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA-Los Angeles-based Reading International has landed two anchor tenants for a $28-million shopping center development in the Newmarket suburb of Brisbane. The publicly traded developer of entertainment-themed retail centers says the 102,257-sf development will be anchored by a Coles Myer grocery store and an ALH pub with gambling facilities.Reading CFO Andrzej Matyczynski tells GlobeSt.com that the anchors will fill a little more than half of the development. The rest of the space, which is broken up into 30 specialty shops and restaurants as well as commercial office space, is filling up fast. Matyczynski says leases have been signed or are out for signature for more than half of the non-anchor space. “We thought the most we would have by now is the 50% we needed to get financing,” says Matyczynski. “To have close to 75% if not more leased is extremely gratifying; we stand a very good chance of being fully leased by the time the center opens.”In another positive development, Matyczynski says Reading was recently able to acquire additional land adjacent to the shopping center property for development of a 12-screen cinema. It will be operated by Reading Cinemas, its Australia-based cinema operating company.Reading paid $4.5 million for the approximately four-acre shopping center site and another $1 million for the land on which the cinema will be built. The cost of the shopping center project is $22.4 million. The cost of constructing the Cinema has not yet been figured. Construction financing is being provided by Bank West.Reading International is in the business of owning and operating cinemas and live theaters and developing, owning and operating real estate assets. It owns and operates movie theaters in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico; owns and operates “Off Broadway” style live theaters in Manhattan and Chicago; and develops and operates entertainment-themed retail centers in Australia and New Zealand.Reading’s most significant real estate assets currently in operation include Courtenay Central, an entertainment-themed retail center in Wellington, New Zealand; two similar developments in Australia; an office building in Glendale, CA, and sundry ancillary retail holdings. Besides The Newmarket, Reading also owns an approximately 50-acre property located in the Burwood area of Melbourne, and an approximately three-acre site located in the Moonee Ponds area of Melbourne, both of which are held for development.