Consolidated Properties

"Jack Bendat & Associates built and refurbished Consolidated Properties’ property assets until Bendat and Stokes set up a building division under another name. In 1973, CPI took over Modernair, which handled the huge air-conditioning contracts needed for the shopping centres. They expanded it to handle all the other elements used in commercial-scale air-conditioning: sheet metal, heavy steel and copper piping, fibreglass ducts and so on."

"Within three months, Consolidated Properties had bought shopping centres worth $2.25 million, producing income of $241,000 a year. In each case the deals were anchored by contracts with a supermarket chain, either Woolworths or Coles. The Subiaco Football Club connection with Woolworths’ Roy Liddell had made them bombproof. The financial deals were getting more complex but at street level the business model seemed simple enough. Build a supermarket and the people will come: first the smaller tenants then the customers."