Brookfield Corporation, the global conglomerate, has rebranded Brookfield Properties Retail back to the GGP name.
In 2010, Brookfield led GGP, a major operator of shopping centers in the U.S., out of bankruptcy. In 2018, Brookfield acquired the remaining 70 percent of GGP it hadn’t owned, taking it private and renaming the business.
However, this week Brookfield revealed that for corporate purposes dealing with retailers, other mall tenants and suppliers, it’s reviving the GGP name. While GGP is a stand-alone entity, the company remains part of Brookfield Corporation.
GGP has a portfolio of over 100 shopping centers among them Ala Moana in Honolulu; Oakbrook Center outside Chicago; The Shops at Merrick Park in Coral Gables, Fla., The Streets at Southpoint in Durham, N.C., and Tysons Galleria in McLean, Va.
The Shops at Merrick Park.
In 2018, “Consumers probably didn’t notice the brand change, but the retail brands and fashion brands all knew there was a name change,” Kevin McCrain, chief executive officer of GGP, told WWD. “Frankly, even though we changed it in 2018 from GGP to Brookfield, they all still called us GGP. Everybody still called it GGP because there was a 70-year history of GGP being the brand, and so everybody just continued to refer to it as GGP.”
Ultimately, “We realized that interacting with the retail community, and ultimately the customer community, we would be best served going back to the beginning and looking toward the future and having our own independent brand. Brookfield is a very large business. It does a lot of things,” with vast interests in office real estate, renewable power, insurance, housing, as well as retail.
“Running as an independent brand, as a subsidiary of Brookfield, we’re still part of the Brookfield ecosystem and all the benefits that come with being part of the Brookfield Corporation, but now as an independent brand it allows us to [better] focus on the needs of our retail partners, customers and communities. It allows us to market ourselves and present ourselves more independently, which benefits our interactions with them.”
In a prepared statement, McCrain said, “This renewed structure provides greater flexibility for GGP to operate with enhanced agility and tailored strategies to ensure the company remains at the forefront of today’s rapidly evolving retail landscape.”
McCrain also emphasized that there will be no changes to day-to-day business operations. The existing team will continue in their roles and maintain their commitment to delivering exceptional experiences for GGP’s tenants, shoppers and communities.
Each year, Brookfield holds a two-day conference for hundreds of retailers, aimed at deepening partnerships and relationships. “It’s always been known as Brookfield Next. Now we can brand everything and market this is for retailers under the GGP brand, and it doesn’t get lost in the larger Brookfield marketing campaigns,” he said.
Outside of GGP, Brookfield does own and manage retail space, but it’s typically within mixed-used developments dominated by office space and other uses. For example, Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan has 8 million square feet of office space and 300,000 feet of retail space. Similarly, Manhattan West, in Midtown Manhattan, has 5 million square feet of office, plus an apartment building and a hotel with about 200,000 feet of retail.
Many years ago, GGP was known as General Growth Properties.
