With a career spanning fashion, Westfield, AMP Capital and now Pace Retail Consulting, Alicia Kemp reflects on four decades of shaping retail and the lessons learned along the way. This exclusive Q&A forms part of the Inside Leasing feature published in the latest issue of SCN magazine.
SHOPPING CENTRE NEWS: How did you get started in retail leasing?
Alicia Kemp: Ever since leaving school in the UK, I had worked in the fashion space. I arrived in Melbourne in the ’80s when Sportsgirl, Miss Shop and Esprit were the hottest fashion stores you had to visit. We all aspired to wear Jag, Adele Palmer and Saba. I worked for Buckley and Nunn just before David Jones bought the building next to Myer in Bourke Street and opened. I was an Assistant Buyer for both and held various roles over 10 years with Myer.
In 1990, I moved to the Gold Coast and worked at Chermside as the HR manager, Indooroopilly as fashion manager and assistant store manager and then Brisbane City. By this time, I had had enough of department stores.
I accepted a state manager role with FJ Benjamin Fashions. We had amazing brands – Gucci, Moschino, Hunting World and Guess were a few. I was tasked with rolling out the shop in stores throughout Myer, as well as opening both the Pacific Fair and Indooroopilly shops for Guess. While negotiating the deal at Indooroopilly for the Guess store, I met Peter Burdon-Smith (Project Leasing Manager for Westfield at the time). Peter introduced me to David Slade (GM Leasing for Westfield, Australia and UK at the time), who continues to be my mentor to this very day.
In 1999, I started working for Westfield leasing and continued to do so for 15 years, working on Chatswood, Hornsby, Bondi Junction, London and Westfield Sydney. They were all fast-paced amazing developments that felt like you were running all the time.
In 2013, I left Westfield Sydney for AMP Capital, championed by another great leader, Simon Van de Velde, and over nine years I worked on Macquarie Centre, Pacific Fair, Booragoon and Karrinyup. Working on a development throughout Covid was extremely difficult and it’s a miracle we managed to lease stores site unseen and got the whole project finished!
My title was fashion category manager – projects, and as there were no more projects after Karrinyup, I was made redundant in February 2022.
In March 2022, Pace Retail Consulting was formed. In 2023, I was very lucky that Louise Eddington chose to join me. We continue to grow. We have such amazing retailers in our stable of brands, which continue to challenge us and teach us so much.
SCN: Can you tell us about your current role?
AK: I didn’t ever think I would end up working for myself, but I really enjoy the variety that it brings. Working all over the country, checking out centres, strip shops, airports and office space is very rewarding. I miss not being part of a wider team at times but now that Louise has joined me, it’s great to be able to bounce around ideas. We have up to 80 deals on the go at any one time. We have concluded and opened deals at Burnside in Adelaide and are about to open deals at Chatswood Chase, Sydney, this year. Every deal has its own challenges and rewards. Each one is different, as are the needs of all our retail clients.
SCN: Do you have any career highlights – proudest moments, favourite projects, most memorable deal?
AK: Opening Bondi Junction was one of my proudest moments. It took so many people, in different roles, to get it to where it ended up. Steven Lowy said to Paula Wyllie (Project Head of Retail Design Westfield Australia/UK) and I on opening morning, with his arms around us, ‘What the team has achieved here will reshape how we retail in both Australia and overseas.”
There were also great firsts at Bondi Junction. The first Zimmermann store in a shopping centre – they only had two strip stores at the time. Today, they remain in the same location, having grown three times. I did the deal with our PR consultant guru, Antonia Leigh, and the Zimmermann sisters, Nicky and Simone. [For] Mecca Cosmetica, Jo Horgan and I battled that deal out with my director Peter Leslie, it was an incredible time.
Of course, opening a business late in my career has also made me very proud.
SCN: What do you love about retail leasing?
AK: What I have most enjoyed about leasing is the people – strong retailers and great negotiators such as Jo Horgan, Gary Theodore, Danny Hammerschlag and Rob Cromb, to mention a few. Retail is an ever-shifting environment, and I think I have loved seeing the amazing changes that have taken place in Australia over the last 40-plus years. I have enjoyed being able to assist in changing shopping habits and creating lasting retail mixes that have gone on to grow even stronger.
SCN: What do you think are the key elements of a successful retail business?
AK: Know your customer, stimulate them, give them a reason to keep coming back. Know where your customers live and open accordingly. Always look at how you are growing your market share and understand the end use for your product. What does each store need to generate per square metre to ensure profit margins? It goes without saying that great mixes come together through hard work and great centres thrive on good retail mix.
SCN: When approaching a new leasing deal, what’s your philosophy on balancing commercial terms with finding the ‘right fit’ for the centre?
AK: Each centre offers something different for each brand or retailer. Super Regional centres are amazing power houses for any brand; however, commercially, brands that are at the start of their journey need to think about the cost to their bottom line, as in the best centres’ rent per square metre will put pressure on smaller brands. I think that waiting for the right space in those malls, rather than jumping into the wrong retail mix is essential.
SCN: What’s one misconception retailers often have about negotiating a lease?
AK: I think it’s about the understanding of percentage rent and what is too much! Also thinking that everyone knows exactly who you are as a brand and what the brand is to the consumer.
Sometimes, we think we know best as leasing executives and often it leads to incorrect placements.
SCN: What’s the biggest challenge facing retail leasing today, and where do you see the greatest opportunity?
AK: I think we are relying too much on the expansion of luxury. We always knew, once we did it some centres would start to look a little the same.
Of course, they add so much but so do unique tenants and new fashion/food players. I believe there has always been room for incubating tenants in good centres.
In every suburb, there are small retailers that really make a difference. It’s about growing these brands.
SCN: What makes a successful retail/landlord partnership?
AK: Listening to each other and understanding that there is always flex on both sides. Talking as partners and not adversaries, particularly in difficult circumstances.
SCN: Which in your opinion is the best example of a good shopping centre, retail precinct or place?
AK: We are lucky in this country that we have amazing teams of strong leasing people, who believe in their centres. We have Pacific Fair, Bondi, Burnside, Chadstone, Karrinyup. I think it’s a shame we don’t have a department store like Selfridges and that some of our smaller centres aren’t more experiential.
SCN: Your favourite retailer and why?
AK: Selfridges is exceptionally experiential, there is drama at every turn, there is something new in every corner. Sitting having champagne on one of the many mezzanines and watching people was one of my most pleasurable things to do in London. From sushi to Dior – it’s an exhilarating retail store!
SCN: If you could give one piece of advice to a retailer looking to open their first store in a shopping centre, what would it be?
AK: Find a great partner to champion your brand. Aaron and Kerryn Langer, Arms of Eve are very strict on where they see the next stores opening. It’s a fabulous way to keep them on track with their growth and me on my toes.
SCN: What advice would you give to someone starting a career in retail leasing? What qualities are key to success?
AK: Listen. Know your brand – do the research on every brand you approach and who they see themselves like, who they want to sit next to. Create precincts where there isn’t one within your centre. As retailers know to place something amazing at the back of a store to draw customers through, it’s the same for centres and dead spaces. You need to think outside of the box where you can.
SCN: How do you think the role of a retail leasing executive will change over the next five years?
AK: I hope retail leasing will become more collaborative and that leasing executives will take more risks to grow different and unique retailers. It’s all about the team and making sure that everyone is happy being part of a team. It’s the only way to grow success.
- This article was first published in SCN magazine – Mini Guns 2025 edition
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