Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI-Taubman Centers is gearing up its international expansion. The locally based upscale shopping center owner has started a new division, Taubman Asia, and hired Morgan Parker, a former executive with Morgan Stanley, as president of the entity.
The move comes after Taubman preliminarily agreed, in November, to develop the retail portion of New Songdon City, a 1,500-acre site, that is planned to include 10 million sf of retail, 50 million sf of offices and 30 million sf of residential space. The master developer of the project is the Florham Park, NJ-based Gale Co.
Taubman's expansion into Asia comes at a time when many US retail REITs are expanding overseas. Last month Simon Property Group's Chelsea Property Group division opened its fifth center in Japan, 178,000-sf Toki Premium Outlets, near the city of Nagoya. Simon executives have expressed interest in opening more centers in Japan and other Asian countries. The Mills Corp., which has centers in Italy and Scotland, is looking to expand in that continent, as well as other regions.
For Morgan Stanley, Parker was based in Tokyo and oversaw the firm's real estate fund's retail investment and management business in Asia. He was also president of Promena Retail Properties, a Morgan Stanley subsidiary which that specializes in retail asset management in Japan.
"These are dynamic growing economies where there is significant opportunity for profitable retail real estate investment," says Parker. "We are well-positioned to take advantage of this tremendous economic and consumer growth with world-class retail capabilities and the prospect of collaborating with experienced and innovative partners."
Taubman owns 22 regional and super regional malls across the United States. Last month company executives announced that in the fall of 2006 a 120,000-sf Nordstrom store would replace a vacant Lord & Taylor unit in its Cherry Creek mall, in Denver.
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