Eastland Shopping Centre

Eastland Shopping Centre

Eastland Shopping Centre
Location	Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Coordinates	37°48′47″S 145°13′45″E / 37.81306°S 145.22917°E / -37.81306; 145.22917Coordinates: 37°48′47″S 145°13′45″E / 37.81306°S 145.22917°E / -37.81306; 145.22917
Opening date	31 October 1967
Developer	QIC
Management	QIC
Owner	QIC
No. of stores and services	233
No. of anchor tenants	7
Total retail floor area	78,688 m2 (846,990 sq ft)
No. of floors	4
Public transit access	Ringwood railway station
Website	Eastland Website

The southern most section of the mall on the ground floor, looking north towards the entrance to Myer.

View of the Eastland Food Court looking east. Before the centre expansion in 2002, the mall used to end at the far end of the Food Court with a large glass panelled wall.

Eastland Shopping Centre is a large shopping centre located in the outer eastern suburb of Ringwood, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, which first opened on 31 October 1967.

It is close to Ringwood railway station, located opposite the centre on Maroondah Highway. The centre features 2 main levels of shops, with a 3rd level containing a Hoyts 12 screen cinema complex and restaurants, forming a total of approximately 235 stores. It is the largest shopping centre in the City of Maroondah, and is located in relatively close proximity to Westfield Doncaster and Westfield Knox.

History

Construction commenced on the two level enclosed complex in July 1966, with a 14,000m² Myer and a 2500m² Woolworths supermarket and variety store as major anchors, along with 40 speciality stores and a 1200 space car park. The initial centre cost $13,000,000 (1966) ($138,000,000 (2008)) to construct, on a 5.67 hectare parcel of land just north of the Maroondah Highway in the heart of Ringwood.

In 1993 a massive redevelopment of the centre was announced, which involved the demolition of the existing centre in its entirety except for the 4 storey Myer building (which was simply refurbished), and after a series of 3 staged openings culminated in the relaunch of a new look Eastland in May, 1995. This extension brought the Centre to 53,300 square metres with major retailers Myer, Safeway and Kmart and 170 specialty retailers.

In 1996 QIC purchased the centre from Coles Myer.

Stage 4 Expansion

In early 2001, after years of rumors and consumer desire for cinemas in Ringwood, QIC announced plans for a stage 4 expansion. Key to this expansion was a Hoyts 12 screen cinema complex (down from the originally planned 14), a few restaurants (including a Pancake Parlour), a Big-W store, and a 2nd major supermarket, which at the time was scheduled to be a Bilo Mega Fresh store (but only a regular Bilo store was built), and an additional 50 specialty stores, increasing the centre's retail size by approximately 25,000 square metres.

Big-W and Bilo opened in late October 2002, along with a handful of the 50 specialty stores. The cinemas opened on 26 December 2002.

Further expansion plans (Stage 5)

Further expansion rumors persisted for years, with initial plans including a large 3-level expansion, connecting the Hoyts end with Maroondah Highway, providing a new entrance to the 3rd level of Myer, and culminating in an outdoor alfresco dining and nightlife area, similar to Knox Ozone. Also included in the plans were an open town centre area and a new public library and office and hotel towers.

This development was due to get underway in late 2009, but stalled, likely due to the Global Financial Crisis. The Maroondah Leader stated that QIC was under contractual obligation with the Maroondah City Council to start the development by 2011 at the latest. It was disclosed in July 2011 that the Maroondah Council had let QIC out of this contract, on QIC's word that works will definitely get underway in 2012.^[1]

QIC also owns the adjacent Ringwood Market site - which was demolished at the end of 2009 to make way for a new retail/commercial development - and past plans for a westward expansion of 3 separate 5 storey buildings, including office space, underground parking, and boutique shops/dining along with the space for a 12,000 square metre retail store (Costco, Ikea and Masters Home Improvement were all rumoured to be vying for the space), linked to Eastland were suggested. Since, then, Melbourne's second Costco Australia store was rumored and then confirmed, with construction commencing in August, 2012. The 14,500sqm store was opened on November 20, 2013.^[2]

In early 2012, the Maroondah Council announced that enabling works would be carried out,^[3] allowing for changes to be made to the Eastern Multilevel carpark; the entry ramp to the 3rd level of the carpark was moved, and Kmart Tyre and Auto was relocated to the North-Western carpark off Ringwood Street. This work was considered necessary before any redevelopment could commence.^[4]

QIC publicly unveiled the $575 million Stage 5 redevelopment on October 28, 2013.

Stage 5 redevelopment

Works are now underway to further expand Eastland. QIC are said to be investing $575 million in a stage 5 expansion, that would see the centre grow by approximately 50% in retail space, from ~80,000sqm to 127,000sqm, making it one of the largest shopping centres in Australia, and almost identical in size to nearby Westfield Doncaster.

It has been confirmed that the new expansion will include a new Target discount department store, David Jones department store, albeit with a smaller footprint than usual, from the average 14,000sqm down to 11,000sqm. The new store will be the latest of the retailer's "Next Generation Store" concepts - featuring increased space for fashion and cosmetics, with less space for homewares and no space for electronics.^[5]

The expansion will span 2 levels for the most part, creating new south and east malls, with an outdoor alfresco dining and entertainment area surrounding the new Ringwood Town Centre and public library space on the third/ground level.^[6] The expansion will have a focus (after customer feedback on the existing mix) on creating more dining and entertainment options for the people of Ringwood, as well as introducing more high-end fashion options into the centre.

The redevelopment is due to be completed in stage, with the first stage opening for Christmas 2015, and the second stage opening by mid 2016.

Retailers

Major anchors

• Myer department store (19,000 m² (200,000 sq ft) over 4 levels, major refurbishment completed August 2011).
• Kmart discount department store (7,300 m² (79,000 sq ft), refurbished in early 2010 and again in September 2013).
• Big W discount department store (6,800 m² (73,000 sq ft), refurbished in late 2010).
• Woolworths supermarket (4,300 m² (46,000 sq ft), refurbished in 2009).
• Coles supermarket (former BI-LO, rebranded as Coles in 2007, refurbished in August 2009).
• Hoyts 12 screen cinema multiplex (featuring 3 'La Premiere cinemas' and an 'Xtremescreen' auditorium)

Minor anchors

• JB HiFi electronics store.
• Priceline health and beauty store.
• The Reject Shop discount variety store.

Future anchors (opening mid 2016)

• David Jones (11,000 m² (120,000 sq ft) department store over 3 levels.
• Target discount department store.

Former anchors

• Harris Scarfe department store.

Food retailers

Eastland also has an extensive food court featuring a number of different fast-food outlets. Examples of what is located within the food court:

• McDonald's opened 1994
• Nandos opened 2008
• Muffin Break opened 1994
• Gloria Jean's opened 2003
• Ali Baba opened 1994
• Red Rooster opened 1994, closed 2013
• Healthy Habits opened 2004
• KFC opened 2003
• Subway opened 2003
• Boost Juice
• Salsas Fresh Mex Grill opened 2010

There are also other food shops situated outside the food court. Examples include:

• Sushi Sushi opened 2006
• Donut King Located on level 1
• Pancake Parlour opened 2003 Located on level 3

Fire

On the 23rd of December 2014, a minor fire triggered chaos at Eastland Shopping Centre in Ringwood at about 10pm, as shoppers were forced to dump overflowing trolleys and head to the car park.^[7][8]

References

External links

• Eastland Shopping Centre Link
• QIC
• Project description (Eastland)