Giant retailer Westfield Group is set to start work later this year on the first stage of a $150 million expansion of Chermside Shopping Centre.
The 50,000sq m expansion will make Chermside one of Queensland’s largest regional shopping centres and the redevelopment will further consolidate the suburb’s status as a major regional centre.
Westfield’s development application has been approved and the retail group hopes to finalise lease pre-commitments and start work by the third-quarter of 2005.
Westfield has acquired various land parcels behind the centre on Gympie Rd to plan future expansion in four stages.
The stage five expansion will increase the size of Westfield’s Chermside Centre to a total gross floor area of about 120,000sq m.
Expansion will include a major discount department store, a supermarket, five mini majors, 100 speciality shops, 4000sq m of commercial/mixed-use space and additional parking.
A market square with associated pedestrian and bicycle paths is a central part of the plan, which also involved council and Westfield acquiring additional land.
Internal roads are being planned to integrate with a new public link road between Murphy Rd and Hamilton Rd.
This will include construction of a bridge over Downfall Creek.
Brisbane City Council Deputy Mayor David Hinchcliffe confirmed that additional roadworks would involve some property resumptions.
“Actual resumptions have not begun, but the overall process of consulting and negotiating with property owners started some weeks ago.”
Cr Hinchcliffe said the new road to the centre should improve access to the centre itself and, at the same time, take pressure off Gympie and Hamilton Rds.
“As the road goes through parkland, it will be managed sensitively and impacts minimised as much as possible.”
Cr Hinchcliffe said the expansion was approved in March this year.
Westfield’s development application includes a three-storey building with 2590 car spaces north of the existing centre.
The most recent expansion of the centre, completed in 2000, added cinemas and restaurants to the retail mix.
Local developers are also planning residential projects around or near the regional shopping centre, in line with Chermside’s status as a major centre under the City Plan.
Opalyn Property Group has started construction on the first of three residential apartment buildings on Playfield St.
Spokesman John Tomarchio said the six-level building in the first stage, Chermside Central, would be completed by October.
Sixty five per cent of the 41 apartments have been pre-sold at an average price of $366,000.
Two eight-level apartment buildings are to be built in stages this year and next.
Mr Tomarchio said Opalyn had been a development pioneer in Chermside.
“There’s big things’ happening in the area so we just wanted to jump in feet first and take the opportunities. The big advantage being a developer in Chermside is that all the infrastructure for this type of development is already there.”
Property Solutions directors Kevin Miller and David Blanck bought the 13,000sq m Byrne Ford site on Chermside’s Gympie Rd some time ago as a strategic hold.
Mr Miller said there was a tenant in place for the next few years which would provide holding income.
“We think retail would go well there although it is zoned MP2 so you can go up to 10 storeys if you want to.”