Chemist Warehouse look set to be an anchor tenant in a major retail network to be established from the ashes of the collapsed Masters Hardware group.
Chemist Warehouse's owners are also part of the 'Home Consortium' creating the new mega malls, with other partners including Spotlight Group and Aurrum.
Home Consortium says it has a binding contract with Woolworths, worth about $750 million, which will see it take over 82 locations, including 61 existing Masters stores and 21 development sites.
They plan to convert the locations across Australia into "multi-tenant large format retail centres," with the first scheduled to open in Apr next year "anchored by a selection of Australia's leading home, hardware, family and lifestyle retailers".
Other prospective tenants are expected to include such names as JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Anaconda and even Bunnings Hardware.
Home Consortium chairman David Di Pilla said "we plan to quickly engage with key stakeholders, including local, state and federal governments and other retailers keen to participate in the transformation of the former Masters sites into vibrant, economically productive precincts providing employment opportunities across the communities that they serve".
Di Pilla said alongside Chemist Warehouse a large majority of the retail space across the portfolio was already pre-committed to "very successful retailers who recognise its potential, especially the opportunity to gain exposure to population growth regions across Australia".
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