Retail Precincts

*Jon Widagdo and Thep Sylaprany for Scentre Group

Retail has evolved beyond conventional shopping centres into dynamic urban destinations that blend lifestyle, hospitality, health and wellbeing, and essential services. With the continued growth of online retail, physical environments need to increasingly leveraged by the experiences they offer.

Successful retail destinations now focus on creating vibrant, people-centric places through integrated dining, entertainment, and thoughtful placemaking to drive visitation, increasing dwell time, and fostering long-term community connection.

Masterplanning + Mixed Use

Successful masterplanning begins with a deep understanding of place, the people and the retail ecosystem: its context, gaps and strengths, to its future potential. It requires a strategic framework that not only responds to today’s needs but enables long-term future proofing, resilience and growth.

The CM+ team delivers award-winning master planned destinations that bring together retail, residential, hospitality, commercial, and public realms to create integrated, future-focused urban communities.

Our approach is driven by strategic thinking and design excellence, balancing commercial outcomes with human experience. Drawing on extensive experience with leading retail developers nationally and globally in shaping new cities and urban precincts, we unlock the full potential of retail-led developments through integrated planning, transport connectivity, sustainability, and adaptable design frameworks.

We understand the complexity of mixed-use environments and the critical role retail plays as both an economic driver, a catalyst for activation and mixed use densification. By creating connected, people-centric places with strong identity and long-term flexibility, CM+ delivers vibrant destinations that evolve with changing urban needs, strengthen communities, and generate a thriving commercial asset.

Lifestyle + Leisure, Placemaking

Retail centres are no longer simply transactional spaces. They are evolving into vibrant town centres and lifestyle destinations. Successful retail environments operate as the “third space” between home and work, combining everyday convenience with entertainment, hospitality, recreation, and community connection to create places people choose to visit, stay, and return to.

CM+ designs activated public realms that bring retail destinations to life. Through an integrated approach across our in-house specialist service of architecture, interiors and landscape, we create engaging, people-centred environments that extend beyond the built form: from urban plazas and leisure precincts to play spaces and immersive retreats spaces. These spaces are strategically designed to enhance experience, strengthen identity, and foster social connection, driving foot traffic, increasing dwell time, and supporting long-term commercial and community value. A town centre succeeds when it serves with purpose, feels relatable to its community, and creates lasting social value. In return, it becomes the heart of the community, a true destination and a marketplace for connection, culture, and everyday life.

Repurposed + Reimagined

Even modest interventions in retail environments can unlock significant value and long-term performance. CM+ transforms underutilised assets through targeted refurbishment strategies, amenity upgrades, tenancy repositioning, and improved centre planning.

With deep sector insight, we identify opportunities beyond the traditional retail footprint, from rethinking food and leisure precincts to improving circulation, access, and car park activation. This holistic approach enables centres to evolve, adapt, and remain commercially resilient in a rapidly changing retail environment.