Eastland Shopping Centre

Eastland Shopping Centre

Eastland Shopping Centre
Location	Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Coordinates	37°48′47″S 145°13′45″E
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	3
Parking	4700
Website	http://www.eastland.com.au

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 Knox Shopping Centre.

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 Ltd.

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 December 26, 2002.

Stage 5 redevelopment

QIC plans to further expand Eastland. They are said to be investing between $350-500 million in a stage 5 expansion, that would see the centre almost double in size, making it one of the largest shopping centres in Australia.

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.

Early plans included 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 are an open town centre area and a new public library (to be built on the corner of land currently occupied by Harris Scarfe) 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 states that QIC is under contractual obligation with the Maroondah City Council to start the development by early-2011 at the latest. QIC has not yet publicly announced detailed plans for the redevelopment, though it is likely that demolition of the existing buildings and parking structures between Eastland's current entrance and Maroondah Highway, will begin in the first half of 2011.

Though 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 - there are currently no plans for Eastland to expand westward onto this vacant land. Current plans are for 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 Woolworths' new hardware store business are rumoured to be vying for the space), that would only be linked to Eastland via pedestrian access. Costco Australia managing director Patrick Noone has all but confirmed that their second Melbourne warehouse will be built there.

Retailers

Major anchors

• Myer department store (19,000 m² (200,000 sq ft) over 4 levels, currently undergoing major refurbishment).
• Harris Scarfe department store (located exteriorly in the old Safeway/Officeworks building, which is set for demolition as part of the Stage 5 redevelopment).
• Kmart discount department store (7,300 m² (79,000 sq ft), refurbished in early 2010).
• 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.

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 Jeans opened 2003
• Ali Baba opened 1994
• Red Rooster opened 1994
• Healthy Habits opened 2004

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

• Sushi Sushi opened 2006
• Donut King
• KFC opened 2003
• Subway opened 2003
• Pancake Parlour opened 2003

External links

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