| Location | Booragoon, Western Australia, Australia |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1972 |
| Management | AMP Capital Shopping Centres |
| Owner | 75% AMP's Australian Core Property Portfolio, 25% WestART |
| No. of stores and services | 201 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 5 |
| Total retail floor area | 72,286 sqm |
| No. of floors | 2 |
| Website | gardencity.com.au |
Garden City Shopping Centre, usually known simply as Garden City, is a major regional shopping centre in the city of Perth, Western Australia. Garden City is located at the corner of Marmion Street and Riseley Street in the southern suburb of Booragoon. Garden City is majority-owned by AMP Limited through its Australian Core Property Portfolio.
In recent years there have been, on average, 13 million annual individual visits to the centre, generating an estimated turnover of over A$500 million annually. In 2007, it grossed a Moving Annual Turnover of A$569.8 million giving it the highest turnover of any centre in the state and the 19th highest in the country. Westfield Carousel has the 2nd highest MAT in the state. Garden City has been owned and managed by AMP Shopping Centres since 1986.
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In the late 1960s, the planning department of the state government drew up a plan for several 'sub-regional' retail centres, which would form the commercial and economic focus of each 'node', and take the retail burden away from the CBD.[1] Booragoon, in the southern suburbs, was chosen as one of the ideal locations.[2]
Work on Garden City was undertaken by Hooker Corporation, and began in 1970. In December 1971, Lady Lloyd Jones placed a time-capsule in the ground. The centre was opened in 1972, and immediately became popular as the nexus of the Melville Civic Centre Complex, which had been established after the Melville Council Offices were built in 1968. The site was in the midst of sandy bush, not far from Applecross Senior High School and Wireless Hill Park.
To visitors today, the original section of Garden City consists of everything from the Davy Street entrance (where the Post Office is situated), to where one reaches the newsagent. Garden City remained this way (with less than 100 shops) until 1983.
In the early 1980s, moves were afoot to upgrade Garden City to meet growing demand. The shopping centre's owners went after big-name department stores. One department store retailer David Jones had withdrawn from Western Australia, and so Boans (West Australian predecessor to Myer) and Aherns (since taken over by David Jones) were selected to build two department stores. In 1983, the first major redevelopment went ahead at a cost of A$25 million.
In the next decade or so, demand increased, resulting in the first major expansion in over a decade. In 1994, the current food court was built. This was followed in 1995 with the cinema complex. The new floor space of 48,000 square metres was however still considered inadequate, and so a second expansion was planned.
The second major redevelopment of Garden City commenced in January 1999 and was completed in October 2000. The main addition was a new eastern section with three parallel malls. Another big change, was the creation of a new 'marketplace' in the area previously occupied by K-mart, and the re-location of K-Mart to the north-eastern corner of the shopping complex. A new bus station was constructed to replace the old one. Another new addition to the shopping centre was the $2.71 million Newmart discount supermarket which opened its doors on 3 October 2000, creating 120 jobs for local people. Newmart would later go on to become an Action supermarket in time for Christmas 2003 and then a Woolworths supermarket in late 2005. This phase of expansion removed much of the ground level parking, replacing it with undercover and rooftop parking. Apart from minor modifications to several satellite buildings such as the demolition of a service station in 2005, the shopping centre has remained largely unchanged since.
As part of the upgrade to the shopping centre in 1999 and 2000, Almondbury Road, the centre's main northern boundary access, was modified so as to prevent vehicles entering the complex if coming from the west. The plan was to encourage vehicles to use Riseley Street rather than the streets of suburban Ardross.
The changes were welcomed by some local residents who saw a substantial reduction in the amount of traffic that had been using local streets to access the shopping centre. However it was equally disliked by many local residents who could no longer easily access the shopping centre, having to go via Riseley Street instead. Particular problems were caused for some residents trying to get to Applecross Senior High School from Booragoon, who were compelled to go around the shopping centre - a route which involved up to 5 sets of traffic lights within 2 kilometres - rather than the previous shorter and easier route.
As a consequence, intended or otherwise, the road became the City of Melville's worst road accident blackspot by some margin. The option of simply changing the access to permit vehicles to access from the west was politically difficult as it would increase traffic on suburban streets. In March 2006 the local council held a community forum to determine what was the best solution for Almondbury Road. At this forum the local residents decided that access would be permitted from the west as had been the case prior to 2000.
As part of the major redevelopment in 1999 and 2000, a significant number of new striking architectural and aesthetic features were added, including a three storey atrium at the eastern end of the complex in the fashion mall.
A key Transperth bus station for the southern suburbs, the Booragoon bus station, is located on the shopping centre premises. It links to such routes as the 940 to Perth city centre, and the 501 to Fremantle. Garden City is amply provided with both undercover and open-air parking.
At present, the main shopping complex has a floor space of 65,000 square metres. The entire centre is situated on approximately 300,000 square metres of land. The main shopping complex consists of a long main mall with several wings and side malls. Coles and Woolworths are the two principle supermarkets, while the anchor department stores include Myer, David Jones and discount department store K-mart. Notable speciality stores include Dymocks Bookstores, City Beach Surf-wear, Dick Smith Electronics, and JB Hi-Fi, with a further 200 speciality stores catering for all tastes.
In addition to shopping the main shopping complex, Garden City houses:
The main shopping complex can be broken into several main areas:
Major food and beverage outlets within the centre include:
No major food restaurants reside outside of the centre.