The managing director of the Queensland property investment firm which recently purchased Riverdale Shopping Centre said he had a number of improvements planned for the plaza.
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Sentinel Property Group purchased the centre from Charter Hall, bringing Sentinel's national portfolio to 26 retail, industrial, office and land assets.
Sentinel managing director Warren Ebert said we wanted to keep the basic fabric of Riverdale Shopping Centre but make small improvements.
"You find a lot of people focus on the bigger details. They look around and go 'oh this looks good', but they don't go out to the loading dock and see how much rubbish is around.
"It's quite often those small things that get up the nose of tenants," he said.
Mr Ebert said Sentinel liked to buy centres that had been neglected by larger groups and work with the tenants to make it a place where people wanted to shop.
"My wife is really big on having coat hooks in the bathroom to hang your handbag up. You don't want to put your expensive handbag on the dirty floor."
Having a clean centre is another priority for Mr Ebert.
"You can have a really great day out but if the toilets are dirty that's what you remember.
"We want a nice, clean, tidy centre so people want to buy there," he said.
Mr Ebert said he is also looking into the way the centre is marketed.
"We're looking at cross promotions, for example, buying a curry at the Indian restaurant and a movie ticket for 'x' amount."
Reading Cinemas and Woolworths accounted for 72.2 per cent of the centre's gross passing income and 77.8 per cent of the space, but Mr Ebert said he planed to have Riverdale fully leased within two months.
Orange Grove Homemakers Centre is also owned by Sentinel, in what Mr Ebert said was part of the company's focus on non-metropolitan areas.
He said Orange and Dubbo were both strong regional towns because they were based on multiple industries and were key transport hubs.
