One company’s loss appears to be another’s gain with news that the Masters Home Improvement site in Heatherbrae is set to be transformed into a small homemakers centre.
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A group of wealthy families and investors, operating under the platform of Home Consortium, purchased all 61 of the Masters sites across Australia as well as 21 development sites.
It is understood the group would look to convert the buildings into multi-tenant, large format outlets.
A spokeswoman for Port Stephens Council told the Examiner that a representative for Home Consortium had met with the council and would lodge a development application in the near future.
“Council was advised that Home Consortium entered into a contract with Woolworths to purchase all 61 of the Masters sites across the country,” she said.
“Their consultants have expressed their intention to lodge a DA in the near future to convert the existing Heatherbrae store into a small homemakers centre with eight individual tenancies”.
The spokeswoman said that no formal tenants had been identified however investors in the consortium are owners of, or linked to, several national chains including Chemist Warehouse, The Good Guys, Freedom Furniture, Super Amart, Anaconda and Spotlight to name a few.
The news was welcomed by Port Mayor Bruce MacKenzie who said that any opportunity to keep people shopping in the local area was a positive move with flow-on benefits to the community.
“The more outlets for shopping in Port Stephens the better,” Cr MacKenzie said.
“The more opportunities to keep people in town and not going out to places like Kotara or Rutherford or anywhere else to spend their dollar, the better.
“It’ll create more employment opportunities for people in the Port Stephens Local Government Area.
Cr MacKenzie added he was confident that the new tenants would bring a successful business model to the site and not suffer a similar fate to Masters.
“It’s up to the private enterprise but I think they’ll do their research and look at what’s lacking in Raymond Terrace CBD and Heatherbrae and go ‘what can we put here that will succeed?’,” he said.
“I wish them well.”
Masters, which employed more than 7000 people across Australia and more than 100 in Port Stephens, shut its doors in early December after more than half a billion dollars in discount hardware was offloaded in a massive firesale.
The Heatherbrae store opened in February 2014.
The company posted a brief a statement on its website saying: “Master [sic] Home Improvement Stores are now Closed.
“We wish to thank all our customers, staff and suppliers for their support.”
It directed customer and vendor inquiries to its parent company Woolworths or the Masters Warranty Portal.
It was reported last month by Fairfax Media that the $725 million deal to acquire the Masters portfolio was struck in August, with Home Consortium to purchase Hydrox Holdings, the holding company for the property and development business and assets of Masters.
It gives Home Consortium a 61-property portfolio comprising 700,000 square metres.
The majority of another 21 development sites included in the transaction would be taken by Spotlight, according to reports.
Warehouses will be converted into multi-tenanted large-format retail centres, with the first of these to open from the second quarter of 2017, however there was no indication on the opening of the Heatherbrae site.
