[COM] Armada Arndale (Redevelopment) | $200m

[Centro Arndale]

The centre has been a flurry of activity over the last few weeks!

Crossroads, Knick Knacks, Mr Rental and Ed Harry have now all opened in the new mall by Big W, with Independent Sports also set to open an impressive new store within the coming days.

We are also pleased to announce some new brands will be opening at Arndale in 2013 including Boost Juice, Specsavers and Bing Boy.

Big W's expansion and store fit out is also just about complete, including a brand new garden centre, optometry service and expanded departments across home entertainment, fashion, outdoor and more.

Work is also well and truly underway on the new entry by Gloria Jean's, with up to 7 new stores scheduled to open early in the new year.

[Ben]

Arndale nears completion



Posted Date: 17/01/2013

By Inside Retail


The first milestone of Centro Arndale’s $35 million redevelopment – six new shop fronts and a new entryway at the north eastern side of the centre - has opened to shoppers.

While the group of existing retailers, including Independent Sports, Ed Harry, Crossroads, Mr Rental, and Knick Knacks are moving into their new stores, new big brands will also join the redeveloped centre, located in Adelaide.

“We are pleased to announce some new tenants will be opening in the centre with Boost Juice, Specsavers and Bing Boy due to open in the new year,” Centro Retail Australia state marketing manager SA/TAS, Michelle Rowse.

A new 200 space car park has also opened to service Big W and the new mall entry. Big W has extended its footprint to 7500sqm to include optometry and a garden centre.

The $35 million redevelopment includes major refurbishments and expansions of both Woolworths and Big W; upgrades to the existing malls and centre entrances; increased car parking spaces to 2300; improved amenities including an additional parents room; new travelators from the basement car park; and a new lift to service the basement and rooftop car parks.

“We are pleased with the level of interest from the community and traders in the redevelopment and look forward to delivering a fresh and vibrant retail space,” Rowse said.

The redevelopment will meet the demand for improved facilities from the nearby Westwood, St Clair and Bowden Village developments, which combined have a potential for more than 8000 homes.

Centro Arndale currently has a GLA of 40,193sqms and is anchored by Woolworths, Coles, Big W, Harris Scarfe, Greater Union 8 cinema complex, and 111 specialty stores. Redevelopment works are expected to be completed by early 2013.

[crawf]

The refurbishment is exactly what Arndale needed, and it's now slowly starting to become a decent looking shopping complex.

If only there was an refurbishment program for some of the people that go there . I saw the most well groomed mullet the other day

[Norman]

Some photos from the phone from Tuesday

[pushbutton]

It looks, erm, well, pathetic!

[crawf]

It's still not finished....

[pushbutton]

Well after taking forever to put a new ceiling through most of the mall, they've now ripped it out again! I'm guessing this has something to do with difficulties installing the cabling for lights etc as they never did put lights in and were only using the old ones from the original ceiling. If so I do have to wonder how something so obvious could be overlooked. It's not as if this was the first ceiling that's ever been built!

Also even though a couple of months have passed since the old Woolworths entry was demolished, they still don't seem to have made any significant progress building the new one.

Signage has been up at Woolworths for months saying it is being refurbished, but there is absolutely no visible indication of any work being done inside Woolworths.

It doesn't seem to me that the whole project is being well managed at all. It's not as if it's an ambitious project, it's just a simple refurbishment and was supposed to be finished before Christmas. Maybe they should just demolish the place and start again!

[pushbutton]

Well I do expect a shopping centre to at least have floors and ceilings. To me that's an absolute minimum.

12 months was much more than long enough to complete this tiny little project and all I'm saying is it seems to be very badly managed.

It's not like they were converting it into something spectacular!

So no, I'm not that hard to please. I just expect a shopping centre not to take months and months to simply replace ceilings and floors, which for the most part is all they're really doing.

Also the new lift and travelators should have been operational by now.

The new floors should have been all polished up by now.

Really very disappointing.

If I seem hard to please it may be because I've seen shopping centres that really are impressive, and I've seen refurbishments that were completed much much faster too.

What I don't understand is that it's Built Environs managing this project, so it's not as if it's some local handyman who doesn't know what they're doing! I would have thought Built Environs could do much better than this.

Anyway it's not as if I shop at Arndale. I merely take a bit of an interest in the construction progress because construction has always interested me and, let's face it, there's little else to do in Adelaide.

[pushbutton]

I have nothing against Centro. Their Surfers Paradise centre is packed with fun. Not the best looking mall I've ever seen but quite frankly when you're shooting rifles, racing dodgems, 10-pin bowling and wondering from one amazing thing to the next (and no I don't count the above as amazing things, Centro is just a route to and from the amazing things), you don't really mind!

Oh but needless to say, it's a whole lot nicer looking than Arndale!

Back in SA, Centro Colonades is boring but at least a very well presented centre. It was Centro who carried out the work to make it what it is so that proves they are capable of creating decent centres.

[crawf]

Well I do expect a shopping centre to at least have floors and ceilings. To me that's an absolute minimum.

Arndale is a very old shopping centre which needed extensive major works inside and out. So have you ever considered they might be doing all the technical stuff at the moment, eg wiring, possible abestos removal?

How about just wait until the shopping centre is complete before making a full judgement. Construction only started mid last year and the Woolworths upgrade is being undertaken by them not Centro.

Their Surfers Paradise centre is packed with fun. Not the best looking mall I've ever seen but quite frankly when you're shooting rifles, racing dodgems, 10-pin bowling and wondering from one amazing thing to the next (and no I don't count the above as amazing things, Centro is just a route to and from the amazing things), you don't really mind!

Do you go to shopping centres to actually shop?.

[[Shuz]]

Stick to the thread topic guys. If you wish to rant and rave about things, by all means feel free to do so, but do so in The Pub.

[Centro Arndale]

Thanks for all the interest and discussion about the redevelopment.

This has been a challenging project as we have juggled keeping the centre operational while additional retail space has been built, as well as significant refurbishments to the existing infrastructure have been made.

We are working very closely with Built Environs to ensure the project is completed as quickly as possible. As you would understand a building of this age has a number of unknowns which can surface. Flooring and ceilings, as previously mentioned in this thread, are currently a key focus with some alterations required to the initial construction; your patience and understanding throughout this process is very much appreciated.

We understand that the works have not been without some disruption, and we commend the resilience of customers. The finished product aims to be what customers and the local community are not only proud of but are able to utilise with the greatest of ease.

Keep an eye out in the coming months for some new store openings including Specsavers and Bing Boy. The new mall by Big W is also now home to a brand new Independent Sports store, which includes an Adidas concept department.

New services including travelators, lift and parent’s room are also progressing well and we will update you closer to the time of completion.

We look forward to sharing more news as it comes to hand, and thank you again for your patience and loyalty.

[Howie]

Thanks for the progress updates Centro Arndale. The new entrance was looking great when i last dropped by. Looking forward to seeing the travelator up, would be a huge improvement to what is already there.

[pushbutton]

The name change from Centro to Federation Centres has officially been approved. I don't personally like it but it has happened so it will be quite interesting to see how this affects the branding of individual centres, including Arndale.

According to what I've seen the centres will all be given their own individual branding so it won't be "Federation Arndale" but will probably be just "Arndale" with its own new logo. I'll have to wait and see how that turns out but it should prove interesting (well I think so anyway)!

New website for Federation Centres:
http://www.federationcentres.com.au

[ynotsfables]

I think its a great idea, this will create more cultural individual hubs in the centre unlike the uniformed franchise feel about some outlets in other centres.