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Westfield goes shopping in Florida
By Geoff Hiscock
SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Australian shopping center group Westfield Holdings has added a Florida mall to its existing portfolio of 62 U.S. properties. Its Westfield America Trust announced Wednesday it would pay $62 million for a 100 percent interest in the 42-store Southgate Plaza, the main regional shopping center for the Sarasota, Florida, market. Westfield already has three shopping centers in Florida's Tampa-St Petersburg market -- at Brandon, Tampa and Clearwater. Westfield managing director Peter Lowy said the Sarasota purchase would make a good fit with its existing properties in what he termed "one of the fastest growing markets in the United States". Southgate Plaza, built in 1956 and renovated and expanded in 1997, turned over about $109 million last year. Westfield said it would pay for the center and its expansion through a $113 million capital raising. Assets around the worldWestfield, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Frank Lowy in 1960 in Australia, is one of the biggest shopping center developers in the world. It has about $18 billion of assets under management in 109 shopping centers in Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and the U.K. The Sarasota acquisition will take the number of malls in the U.S. to 63. Last month it won planning consent from Nottingham City Council in the U.K. for a £400 million ($640 million) redevelopment of the Broadmarsh Center there. Westfield America Trust, which is managed by Westfield Holdings, is locked in a legal battle over insurance cover related to the September 2001 terror attack on the World Trade Center. Westfield signed a lease over the retail section of the center two months before the attack. Another U.S. acquisition that was initially blocked by legal action was settled in May, when Westfield America Trust bought 14 shopping centres from Rodamco North America for about $2.7 billion. Shares in Westfield Holdings are 0.3 percent lower at A$3.45 on the Australian Stock Exchange in Wednesday afternoon trading. Westfield America Trust is down 0.96 percent to A$2.06. The broader Australian market, measured by the S&P/ASX200, is down 0.13 percent.
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