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	459
No. of anchor tenants	7
Total retail floor area	131,000 m2 (1,410,000 sq ft)
No. of floors	4
Public transit access	Ringwood railway station
Website	Eastland Website

Eastland Town Square

Realm Library on Eastland Town Square

David Jones Department Store

Eastland Shard

Eastland Town Square

Eastland Shard

Eastland Central Mall

Eastland East Mall

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.

Eastland Expansion 2015-2016 (Stage 5)

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 originally due to get underway in late 2009, but stalled due to the Global Financial Crisis until 2013. Enabling works commenced in 2012 ^[1] 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.^[2]

QIC publicly unveiled the $665 million Stage 5 redevelopment on October 28, 2013. The centre has been expanded by approximately 50% in retail space, from ~80,000sqm to 131,000sqm, making it one of the largest shopping centres in Australia, and almost identical in size to nearby Westfield Doncaster.

The new expansion includes a new Target discount department store and a David Jones department store. The new David Jones 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.^[3]

The expansion spans 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.^[4] The expansion has 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. QIC appointed Seventh Wave as Creative Directors for Stage 5 to oversee the expansion. The Realm Library, Town Square, David Jones and the Shard were designed by ACME, the Central Mall refurbishment and link malls were designed by Universal Design Studios and the East Mall was designed by Softroom. The redevelopment completed in 2 stages, the first stage opened on 29 October 2015 and the second stage opened on May 5, 2016.

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 rumoured and then confirmed, with construction commencing in August, 2012. The 14,500sqm store was opened on November 20, 2013.^[5]

Retailers

Major Anchors

• Myer Department Store over 4 levels, major refurbishment completed August 2011) (19,000 m² (200,000 sq ft)
• David Jones Department Store over 2 levels (11,000 m² (120,000 sq ft)
• Big W Discount Department Store (6,800 m² (73,000 sq ft), refurbished in late 2010).
• Kmart Discount Department Store (7,300 m² (79,000 sq ft), refurbished in early 2010 and again in September 2013)
• Target Department Store
• Coles Supermarket (former BI-LO, rebranded as Coles in 2007, refurbished in August 2009)
• Woolworths Supermarket (4,300 m² (46,000 sq ft), refurbished in 2009)
• Hoyts 12 Screen Cinema Multiplex (featuring 3 'La Premiere cinemas' and an 'Xtremescreen' auditorium)

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.^[6][7]

References

External links

• Eastland Shopping Centre Link
• QIC
• Project Site ACME
• video animation
• Project description (Eastland)