NZX & MEDIA RELEASE 14 November 2008
Sylvia Park Shopping Centre strikes Gold
New Zealand’s premier shopping centre Sylvia Park has joined the world’s elite shopping destinations with a Gold Award
for its Innovative Design and Development from the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC).
Sylvia Park has also been confirmed as the only Australian or New Zealand finalist at the ICSC International awards to
be held in Phoenix in early December 2008. As a Gold Award winner in Asia, Sylvia Park is automatically entered as a
finalist in the ICSC “best of the best” International awards to be held in Las Vegas in May 2009.
For more than 30 years the ICSC has recognised and honoured the shopping industry’s cutting edge properties, innovative
solutions and creative responses to market trends through its global awards programme.
Chris Gudgeon, Chief Executive of the Manager of Kiwi Income Property Trust, Sylvia Park’s developer and owner,
described the award as “deserved recognition for the team that delivered this truly innovative world class retail
project”.
Sylvia Park is the largest shopping centre in New Zealand and Kiwi Income Property Trust’s flagship retail asset. It
recently achieved sales turnover of in excess of $350 million in its first complete year of trading.
“The design values that have made Sylvia Park an iconic regional shopping centre are paying off with Sylvia Park’s
performance exceeding initial expectations,” Mr Gudgeon said.
To further enhance the customer’s retail experience, the Trust is nearing completion of a multi-storey carpark building
that will provide a further 750 car parking spaces. “This is a significant enhancement to Sylvia Park which will provide
carparking for future office buildings as well as the Centre’s retail customers. Shoppers will be delighted with the
extra parking and the easing of congestion, particularly at the weekends leading up to Christmas,” Mr Gudgeon said. The
car park building will be open for use from early December 2008.
The Gold award for Innovative Design and Development was presented to Sylvia Park Project Director Andrew Buckingham at
the inaugural Asian division awards ceremony in Macau. Mr Buckingham said that “it is an honour to receive this ICSC
award which recognises ten years of vision and hard work. There is no greater accolade for shopping centre development.
To be considered in the same company as the other six nominees in this category, is indeed a mark of distinction and a
proud achievement for the project team”.
The concept design of Sylvia Park was originally undertaken by Gensler Architects from Santa Monica in the USA. NH
Architecture of Melbourne and local firm Jasmax subsequently formed a joint venture known as Sylvia Park Architects
(SPA) and undertook the production design.
Representing SPA at the awards ceremony was Euan MacKellar a Director of Jasmax who commented that “Sylvia Park had been
an innovative, collaborative and extremely challenging project that both Jasmax and NH Architecture are incredibly proud
of”. The awards are judged by an independent committee of Shopping Centre executives from throughout the Asia Pacific
Region. Judging criteria included Land Use, Design, Development Goals, Productivity & Financial Performance, Innovation and Sustainable Design.
ENDS