Peter Lowy, Westfield Group co-managing director, said his firm would spend as much as $4 billion over the next five years on renovations of its U.S. malls, including a $500-million upgrade of its Century City property that will include 260 luxury condominiums. "We've been here so long that we're viewed as a domestic company," said Lowy, who is also making a big bet on Britain with plans for a $2.7-billion mall in downtown London.
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"You can literally within a couple of days go to your investor base there and they will commit to significant allocations," he said.
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The U.S. has been the recipient of foreign investment surges in the past, triggered by currency shifts, large pools of accumulated capital or rising oil prices. In the 1980s and early '90s, it was the Japanese armed with a strong yen who paid astronomical prices for U.S. trophy buildings and golf courses. After Japan's bubble collapsed, the Germans with their strong currency led the way into the United States.
Stan Ross, chairman of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at USC, said Americans should welcome foreign investment in real estate because those assets can't be taken out of the country and aren't easily sold off, like stocks or Treasury bonds.
"This is long-term investment capital," said the former managing partner of E&Y Kenneth Leventhal Real Estate Group. "It's not trader capital."