Jones Lang LaSalle has formed a joint venture with Australian company Colonial First State Property Management to provide a retail development and management service across Asia.
The partners have formed a 50:50-owned company called Sandalwood which will provide services including consultancy, leasing, development and shopping centre management.
The partnership sees JLL gain access to a company which has worked on more than 25 of Australia’s biggest shopping centre developments. Colonial now manages 36 centres including the Chadstone Shopping Centre in Victoria, Chatswood Chase in Sydney and QueensPlaza in Brisbane.
Sandalwood will have its head office in Singapore and the company will launch its operations in two phases, the first phase of which will cover Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Macau, Taiwan, Indonesia and India.
Peter Barge, chief executive for JLL Asia Pacific said: ‘This joint venture comes at an opportune time, when the retail sector in Asia is enjoying robust growth, buoyed by consistently strong economic performance, positive consumer sentiment and increasing affluence in the region.
‘Results of our latest annual Retailer Sentiment Survey also showed broad retailer optimism in Asia, with 76% of survey respondents anticipating higher growth in turnover in 2008 and nine out of ten survey respondents planning to expand their retail operations.
'All these positive indicators present tremendous retail opportunities for the new joint venture company.’