New joint ventures

Miller Developments is continuing its expansion in Europe with £60 million of investment and new joint ventures in Malta and Germany, writes Lianne Gutcher in Scotland's Sunday Herald:

The commercial development arm of The Miller Group, the UK's largest privately owned property developer, has agreed a £46m deal to develop a 173,654sqft shopping centre in Malta and a £13.5m contract to create an 86,114sqft retail park in Hassloch, Germany. In Malta, The Point Shopping Centre will be located in Sliema, near Valletta, and will be developed with local partner, the Midi Consortium. The three-level centre will include a department store, a supermarket, a cinema complex and about 40 shop units. The department store has been pre-let to Debenhams.

The centre forms part of a mixed-use scheme called Tigné Point, which is one of the most ambitious development projects to be undertaken in Malta. As well as the shopping centre, Tigné Point will have offices, hotels, restaurants and bars and approximately 500 luxury apartments. In Hassloch, to the west of Heidelberg in Germany, Miller Developments has secured a 6.2 acre site for a new retail park. Miller has entered into a joint venture with local developer Prebag for an 86,114sqft project which will have an end value of more than £13.5m. Until now, Miller Developments has focused on buying investment properties in Germany..

..Phil Miller, chief executive of Miller Developments, said: "Following its entry to the EU, Malta is rapidly emerging as a popular business destination on the back of a pool of multilingual graduates, a modern telecommunications structure and air connections with all the major European cities and North Africa. With the arrival of low-cost carriers we also expect substantial growth in tourism over the next few years."...In Malta, work on site has now started with completion scheduled for June 2009. In Germany, Miller and Prebag will submit a planning application for the Hassloch site within the next three months.