General principles of good convenience retail development.

• Retail sould be built on one level only.  Lower ground and upper levels in smaller retail historically do not work and rarely make a commercial return commensurate with the construction costs.
• Suspended slabs and piers re very expensive construction forms for small retail and again it is rare that a developer could make a commercial return in rents commensurate with the high cost of this construction. 
• The location should ideally be on the homeward bound side of the road.
• Access from all directions should be easy and diret with no doubling back.
• Gross floor area should ideally be in the order of 700 square meters but may be up to 1,000 square metres.
• All tenancies ideally should have a frontage to and/or exposure to the street or car park.
• The site should have a good frontage to depth ratio.
• An ideal range for shop sizes in a convenience center is of the order of 40 square metres to perhaps 280 square metres with the majority of shops being sub 100 square metres.  In a suburban location there are typically at most, one or two tenants who would require more than 100 square metres and perhaps one tenant that might require more than 200 square metres.
• There is not the demand in the tenancy pool for large size tenancies in a suburban location, nor can most suburban retail operators justify the cost of such space as a percentage of their turnover, nor practically do they require large space to operate.