In the decade after its first district shopping centre, The Park Centre, opened in Victoria Park, Perth, Pivot developed other local, district and regional shopping centres throughout Australia which were ultimately bought by institutional investors.
In 1984, Pivot Group bought the Sea World Theme Park on Queensland’s Gold Coast. After floating the Sea World Property Trust for $93million on the Australian Stock Exchange the following year, it transformed the property into an International tourist attraction, catering for 1.5million visitors per year. In 1987, Sea World built a 400-room resort hotel connected to the Theme Park by Australia’s first monorail. During the decade of Pivot’s major ownership and management, the Sea World complex employed 1,000 staff and won four awards as “Best Tourist Attraction in Australia.” Sea World was the first appointee to Australia’s Tourism Hall of Fame.
In 1989, Sea World formed a joint venture with Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Limited to design, construct and operate Australia’s first movie theme park. Peter Laurance was the inaugural Chairman when Warner Bros. Movie World opened on the Gold Coast in June 1991, at a cost of $A150million and employing 1,000 staff. It has attracted up to 1.5million visitors each year since then, and also has earned the award as “Best Tourist Attraction in Australia.” Warner Bros./Village Roadshow bought all of Pivot’s theme park interests in 1993.
Since then, Pivot has returned to its property roots of developing shopping centres and office buildings in Perth and Adelaide, South Australia. Its most recent Perth development was the $306million, 22-storey, 40,000m2 retail and office complex known as “EnEx” connecting 100 St. George’s Terrace Perth to the Hay Street mall, which is now owned by Industry Superannuation Property Trust (ISPT).
