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

[neoballmon]

I like the sound of "The Arndale" more than just "Arndale". But I guess it's up to them.


Also, I was in the shopping center yesterday. It still seems like Woolworths have no motivation to upgrade the store.. The moment I walked in, I felt like I was back in the 90's shopping in Morphett Vale Woolies. I've always thought of Woolworths as the money-hungry supermarket, but lately they've just been slacking off majorly..

[Brucetiki]

Wasn't Arndale originally a shopping centre chain name itself - Marion also being another 'Arndale' when it first opened.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arndale_Centre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centro_Arndale

[pushbutton]

Marion currently has reproductions of old newspaper articles on display, which refer to it as Marion Arndale. So even though the Wikipedia article only lists 2 centres in Australia, Marion was apparently one too.

[pushbutton]

I went through yesterday afternoon.

The new entrance near Gloria Jeans is open, along with a small new mall like the one near Big W.

The new lift near Big W is open, and the travellators look just about ready to open.

Most of the new doors have the Federation Centres logo all along them.

Woolworths is finally showing early signs of internal refurbishment.

Of course, it's Arndale, which seems to mean for every step forward there must be a step back. The new ceilings near Big W and along both malls from there down that were ripped out have been put back in (with lights this time in most parts), but the new ceiling in the new extension near Big W has been ripped out. I don't understand this, especially as it was a newly built extension.

The floors throughout most of the mall still haven't been polished up. I wouldn't be surprised if the new flooring at Westfield Marion gets finished before the new flooring at Arndale at this rate.

On the positive side though, it does appear they've taken on board our suggestion of making the Centre Court area into some sort of food court. Just temporary seating for now, but once the floor is finally polished up, I am guessing it will be replaced with something a bit more permanent and it should end up as a reasonable temporary food court until something better can be done.

[Vjkdigital]

***Praise The Lord***

[pushbutton]

Travellators are now open, and work has started on closing off the old pedestrian ramp (I suppose demolishing it was considered too hard so it will just be blocked off both ends).

Woolworths refurb is well underway now. All checkouts have been replaced as have most of the roller shutters. Old ceiling removed. New entry gates in place.

New ceiling in Woolworths mall almost complete (but not painted yet. I wonder if they'll remember to put the lights in this one?

New entrance near Gloria Jeans is open, but none of the shops near it are, and they haven't even laid any floor tiles in that little new mall near it. Ceiling is in but no lights. I hate to be so harsh but the whole project just reeks of gross incompetence.

For some reason they have never yet fully opened the doors to Big W. I don't know whether there's some sort of problem there, or the staff are just a bit too dumb to realise the difference it makes, or they just don't care.

I am disappointed that Specsavers have been allowed to open in what is otherwise pretty much a sort of food court. They could have put Bing Boy there and Specsavers where Bing Boy is. Pretty obvious really.

Anyway some progress is slowly being made. I really think it would have been more prudent to bite the bullet and demolish the place and build a new centre. It could have been done in say 3 stages so that some stores could be still trading at any given time. Sure it may have cost a bit more but the end result would have been achieved with less mess and waste, and would have been far superior to what is actually happening (for example the brand new travellators wouldn't have smelt of sewage this morning)! It seems short-sighted not to have taken that opportunity.

Oh well. It's Arndale. Not exactly awe-inspring, but it's beginning to look almost ok, very slowly.

[Patrick_27]

Travellators are now open, and work has started on closing off the old pedestrian ramp (I suppose demolishing it was considered too hard so it will just be blocked off both ends).

Woolworths refurb is well underway now. All checkouts have been replaced as have most of the roller shutters. Old ceiling removed. New entry gates in place.

New ceiling in Woolworths mall almost complete (but not painted yet. I wonder if they'll remember to put the lights in this one?

For some reason they have never yet fully opened the doors to Big W. I don't know whether there's some sort of problem there, or the staff are just a bit too dumb to realise the difference it makes, or they just don't care.

I am disappointed that Specsavers have been allowed to open in what is otherwise pretty much a sort of food court. They could have put Bing Boy there and Specsavers where Bing Boy is. Pretty obvious really.

Anyway some progress is slowly being made. I really think it would have been more prudent to bite the bullet and demolish the place and build a new centre. It could have been done in say 3 stages so that some stores could be still trading at any given time. Sure it may have cost a bit more but the end result would have been achieved with less mess and waste, and would have been far superior to what is actually happening (for example the brand new travellators wouldn't have smelt of sewage this morning)! It seems short-sighted not to have taken that opportunity.

Oh well. It's Arndale. Not exactly awe-inspring, but it's beginning to look almost ok, very slowly.

I agree, man! Considering the investment being injected into the area, it'd have been nice to see the whole re-built. I'm hoping that there are plans somewhere down the line to undertake a much larger re-development pending on the increased patronage from the Cheltenham Development. Would love to see HS reopen there, the awesome signage/communications tower pulled down and the cinema's connected up with the centre itself. Hopefully soon!

[crawf]

HS is still there..

[rev]

Indeed it is. Although only the ground floor level is open, with the second level being used as storage.

For some reason they have never yet fully opened the doors to Big W

Can you specify which doors aren't fully opened?
There's only one entrance. Every time I've been through, they've been open.


No denying the whole place needs a huge redevelopment, top to bottom inside and out.
But let's keep in mind that Centro group got into financial difficulties and had to scale back redevelopment plans to what we have gotten today.
I'm sure in the not too distant future when finances and the economy improve(economy doing better, consumers spending more, reason for shopping centers to upgrade bigger), that they will do something more with the place.
For now I think it's safe to view this redevelopment as a "freshener-upper", till there is reason and ability to do more with it.

[pushbutton]

Both the entrance doors are not fully opened. To me this makes a big (negative) difference aesthetically.

[Vjkdigital]

Travelators already broken down and fenced off.... That was quick!!

[pushbutton]

Travelators already broken down and fenced off.... That was quick!!

Pretty unimpressive stuff isn't it!

[Centro Arndale]

It is great to see some much ongoing interest and discussion regarding our redevelopment.

As we have mentioned previously, this has been a challenging project and we understand that the works have not been without disruption. The support, and resilience, of our customers is very much recognised and appreciated.

There have been some exciting project milestones realised recently including the new mall entry opposite Gloria Jean’s opening, with direct access to over 200 new car spaces. Tenancies within this mall will progressively open over the coming months. The new landscaped area, where the bus interchange used to be located, is now complete and ready to house outdoor seating for the new food tenancies.

We have had popular food outlet Bing Boy open, which is receiving great feedback from customers, and have just signed on youth fashion retailer, Globalize, to open in the Centre mid-year.

There are a number of other new stores and tenancy relocations that will be also be opening in the coming months including:
· Boost Juice - to be located opposite Woolworths
· Commonwealth Bank - moving to the new mall near Gloria Jean’s
· RPM 24 Hour Fitness – opening in the former Commonwealth Bank tenancy
· H&R Block - will be moving into a new tenancy to be created next to Arndale Bakery
· Bras N Things – moving to its final tenancy next to Flight Centre
· iTop mobile phone & repairs
· Liana Jewellery – opening in a new kiosk near Big W
· Community Bridging Services – will open an office in the new Big W mall

There has been some key services that have recently come online including the new lift, parents room and travelators.

Regarding the travelators being closed shortly after they were completed, we had to perform some repairs on them due to a trolley being run into one of the glass panels and breaking it. The panel has since been repaired and the travelators are now up and running again.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the ceilings constructed last year needed to be replaced and the tiling needed further work as well. Both are currently being fixed, as a few of you have noted in your posts, and we expect both projects to be completed in the coming months.

The completion of our $35m redevelopment is very much in sight and we once again want to thank everyone for their interest.

[Howie]

Fantastic work, and thanks for the update. I went to Arndale recently, and the difference is day and night.

[uming]

just wondering what's the empty land at the new car park (Big W side)??? any new things coming on there??