Super Plus taps equity in real estate
Published:Friday | October 14, 2011 | 12:00 AM
- Tenants get first offer
The Super Plus group has decided to capitalise on equity owned in a shopping centre in Christiana, Manchester, by placing on the market 23 of 29 shops, including supermarket space, priced between $2 million and $36 million.
Wayne Chen, group chairman and chief executive officer, said Monday that the shops in the 17-year-old Super Plus Shopping Centre complex were being "offered to the tenants first as it is a prime location for all types of business".
Among businesses currently operating in the plaza are a Super Plus supermarket, clothing, hair care and appliance stores, as well as restaurants. Potential owners will participate in a strata plan.
"Christiana is a fast-growing commercial centre and its potential has been heightened by the current improvement to the infrastructure and other businesses," said Chen, adding that "the plaza is located on the busiest site in the town".
Chen declined to comment on the possible use of the income generated from the sale of the units. He was also reluctant to provide an update on the family's supermarket business, which ceased expansion in 2009 under recessionary influences and the fallout from a rapid expansion thrust prior to 2006.
"I can only speak to the instant issue of the sale of some of the shops in Super Plus Centre, Main Street, Christiana," he said.
Super Plus Food Stores had shuttered up to eight of its supermarkets and wholesales by March 2009, sent home 600 workers and sold its St Andrew headquarters for $88 million.
The family business was started by Vincent and Gloria Chen in Port Antonio in 1964. By 2003, eight of their nine children were engaged in the business, at which time it was described as Jamaica's largest retailer measured by gross revenues, with 24 stores and 1,500 employees.