QIC Global Real Estate: Connecting People with Places

BoF sits down with QIC Global Real Estate director of investment management Stuart Miller, to learn more about how the firm is pioneering the development of next-generation retail centres.

BRISBANE, Australia — In the United States and its native Australia, the Queensland Investment Corporation’s Global Real Estate Division (QIC GRE) is pioneering the development of next-generation retail centres, stitched into the fabric of the communities and cities in which they sit. As QIC GRE invests over $3.5 billion 
in its development programme and looks to its global potential, BoF sits down with director of investment management Stuart Miller, to hear more.

What is QIC Global Real Estate?

Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) was launched in 1991 as an investment vehicle for the Queensland Government. Today, QIC is a global funds manager with about $53 billion (AUD$73 billion) under management. Within that, the Global Real Estate division operates an $11 billion asset portfolio specialising in mixed-use commercial and retail assets, which includes interests in about 30 sites across Australia and the United States. Each site is different, but for us — it’s about connecting people with places. It’s as simple as that. We are a business that takes its cues and shapes its opportunities from understanding the communities within which we operate.

What has driven the real estate division’s growth into a global $11 billion retail portfolio?

The majority of the growth has come through our strategic asset creation programme, which we have built from the ground up. That has been the growth driver for the past 24 years. It’s organic growth, achieved by responding to the markets in which our real estate assets are located.

Recently we’ve established a platform in the United States — we have eight centres in a joint venture with Forest City and also manage an interest in Hawaii's Ala Moana Shopping Centre, which is a very exciting initiative for us.

What kind of experiences does QIC seek to create?

We are transforming our centres from traditional transactional shopping environments, to curated spaces for immersion and entertainment. When we deliver a project, one of our measures of success is what we call "plonk" value. We’re not just measuring success by the amount of shopping bags we’re seeing, but by people participating in the space. We’re trying to create an ambience and atmosphere in which they feel comfortable to just do that.

If you think about how people navigate a city and where they feel most comfortable, it’s rare that they’ll feel most present in privately owned space. There’s this perception that it’s safer in the public realm, be it the forecourt of a museum, a park or a town square. Anywhere they don’t feel the pressure to engage in commerce of some form.

As a result, another great measure of success for us is when a community isn’t aware of the physical boundaries of QIC GRE property and public space. In no way are we trying to disguise it, but if they cross a road or cross a square into a park — that’s actually controlled by a private company like us, which often sits adjacent to fashion, entertainment, dining — then we really have stitched ourselves into the fabric of that community and that city. That, for us, is the goal.

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