Epping Plaza

Epping Plaza

Location	Epping
Opening date	1996
Owner	Pacific Shopping Centres
No. of stores and services	218
No. of anchor tenants	6
Total retail floor area	69,000 m²
Parking	3050 Aboveground car parks 950 underground car parks
No. of floors	1
Website	www.eppingplaza.com.au

Epping Plaza is a shopping centre in Epping, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It opened in May 1996. It is located on the corner of High Street and Cooper Street, 500 m away from Epping railway station, Melbourne, and approximately 21 km north of the Melbourne CBD.

History

In mid 2007, Epping Plaza underwent major extension and the total number of stores grew to 218. Epping Plaza's layout is extremely spacious (especially the new extension area); all stores are spread out on one floor, only the cinemas are located on the second floor. Epping Plaza is now one of the major shopping centres in the north of Melbourne. Epping's Homemaker Centre is also located directly across the road on High Street.

Further development of the centre was completed in 2009 with the extension and refurbishment of the Fresh Food Hall now titled "Hunter & Gatherer". The area north of Hunter & Gatherer was also refurbished at this time.

Stage 4 is set to add 14 restaurants and cafés in a street-style setting on the cooper St side of Epping Plaza also a bowling centre and gymnasium will be constructed, Reading cinemas are also planning to add 2 gold class style auditoriums to the existing cinemas.

Major shops

• Big W 7,400m2
• Safeway (Woolworths) formally called Rainbow 9 Aisles
• Coles 13 Aisles
• Target
• Harris Scarfe
• Aldi
• Reading Cinemas
• The Reject Shop
• JB Hi-Fi
• Best and Less
• Dick Smith Electronics
• Dan Murphy's
• EB Games

Food outlets

Epping plaza has two food courts with the second having been added during the mid 2007 extension. Along with the two food courts, Epping Plaza has six restaurants located just outside the centre.

• 2x KFC (One is located in the second food court, the other outside)
• Subway (Second food court)
• Muffin Break (Second food court)
• Wendy's (First food court)
• 2x Donut King(One in first food court, the other in the second)
• Hungry Jack's (Located outside)
• Gloria Jean's Coffees (Second food court)
• T.G.I. Friday's (Located outside)
• Jamaica Blue Cafe (Located opposite to Target )
• New Zealand Ice Cream (Located near Safeway)
• Goldies Coffee House (Located Near Big W entrance)

Incidents

On 3 October 2006 a small fire broke out in cinema six of Reading cinemas forcing the evacuation 40 people. Water from fire sprinklers trigged by the blaze also caused damage to a Harris Scarf department store located below the cinema. Police believe the blaze was deliberately lit.

On 3 December 2008 shoppers and staff at the shopping centre were evacuated after a wall fell five metres inside Big W’s garden centre. Police initially feared Big W’s northern wall, which was attached to the fallen one, could also collapse, adding "It was an absolute miracle no one died’’. The collapse caused Big W, surrounding stores and part of the underground car park to be evacuated and the Big W entrance to the centre to be closed off. It is thought that a burst pipe may have caused the collapse. No one was injured. Police praised the actions of the staff of Big W Epping and Epping Plaza.

One of the first cases of swine flu in Australia unconnected with foreign travel were detected at Epping Plaza. A staff member at Mcdonalds,was diagnosed with swine flu virus, the Mcdonalds branch was immediately closed.

See also

• List of shopping centres in Australia

External links

• Epping plaza

• Epping Plaza is at coordinates 37°39′07″S 145°01′23″E