Qld shopping centres: The battles to get them built, stopped or changed
Shopping centres may be crucial to our everyday lives but the battle to get them off the ground – or to be stopped – is often anything but straight forward. FULL LIST OF WARS
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Shopping centres may be crucial to our everyday lives but the battle to get them off the ground – or to be stopped – is often anything but straight forward.
In November 2022 it was revealed Bellbowrie Shopping Plaza could be transformed into units with reality and restaurants, according to industry experts.
The four big ideas come after shock news broke a week prior that Metcash, parent company of supermarket franchise IGA, had no plans to move into the troubled centre.
The centre has been eerily quiet since June 2021 when Coles moved out to a new shopping centre on higher ground at Moggill — the first new centre in the area in half a century.
The case continues Queensland’s curious relationships with shopping centres over the years – these are the pivotal battles waged in recent years.
HYPERDOME BATTLE
A former discount store owner in August 2022 claimed a large state government-owned shopping centre held off reducing his $1.1 million a year rent until it was too late and he was forced to close.
Former Hyperdome tenant Nishil Vekariya, who owned two Choice Discount store outlets at the centre, said he was “on his hands and knees and begging for mercy” to have his rent reduced.
Choice the Discount Store, which closed in September 2019 and reopened again in 2020 before going into liquidation, was charged $63,000 a month with further rents of $32,000 for a second site inside the Hyperdome.
Mr Vekariya said he had asked three times for rent reductions before slipping behind in monthly payments to the tune of nearly $30,000.
He said the landlord, the Queensland Investment Corporation, known as QIC, refused his requests until August 2019, a month before he was forced to close his stores for six months.
The Hyperdome did not respond to Mr Vekariya’s claims saying all information about lease negotiations remained commercial-in-confidence.
BITTERSWEET WIN
A residents action group enjoyed a hollow victory in its battle with a Bundaberg shopping centre in 2017.
The Kepnock Residents Action Group had been embroiled in a long battle against a proposed shopping centre development at Kepnock near Aldi.
Judge Michael Rackemann allowed the appeal on the basis the developer, Janam Pty Ltd, was no longer proceeding with the development application.
KRAG spokeswoman and appellant Mary Walsh said at the time the win had no meaning after developers resubmitted amended plans for the development during the court case.
The new Kepnock Central submission was approved by Bundaberg Regional Council under its changed town plan.
Mrs Walsh said she feared the shopping centre would “kill Bundaberg’s CBD”.
Work at the location started in July 2021 and is expected to be completed in 2023.
RENT FIGHT
Investment giant AMP Capital was in March 2020 under fire for refusing to reduce rents at its ‘ghost town’ shopping centres amid the Covid crisis.
A retailer at AMP’s flagship Pacific Fair shopping centre on the Gold Coast shared an email expressing his shock and disgust at the multi-billion dollar company.
Ben Jones, director of lolly and chocolate retailer Candy Time, said he was devastated to receive an email from AMP saying that it could not drop the rent “at this point in time”.
Acknowledging “uncertain and unprecedented times”, AMP said it was prepared to work with retailers to defer rent but asked them to provide forecast cashflow for the next six months, “detailed” profit and loss statements for the previous 12 months and advice on other assistance and government stimulus payments.
Mr Jones said the response was ‘devastating’.
FAR NORTH FURY
A long-held dream of a Townsville developer to build a rival Smithfield retail centre was in May 2022 crushed by a final court decision to disallow construction of the Smithfield Hub.
The Brisbane Planning and Environment Court found in favour of Cairns Regional Council in a planning war waged through the legal system over two years.
An appeal by Trinity Park Investments and L’armonia against a decision by Cairns Regional Council in 2020 denying the rezoning of land to build the Smithfield Hub shopping centre was dismissed by Judge William Everson.
Judge Everson told the court at the centre of the dispute was the question of whether there was a need for the proposed development and if the proposed shops would compromise effective function of centres provided for in the CairnsPlan 2016 planning scheme.
RETAILER REVOLT
Indooroopilly Shopping Centre was in danger of becoming a ghost town as the luxury shopping destination faced a mass exodus of retailers in 2017.
More than 30 retailers including big names such as Ella Bache, French Twist, Sublime Hairdressing and Argyle Jewellers exited the precinct over eight months.
The centre had been battling a retailer revolt after more than 110 store owners and managers joined a movement to oust centre management in 2016 in an effort to fix the centre’s parking woes and encourage shoppers to return to the problem-plagued area.
As of September 2022 the shopping centre had largely bounced back.
COMPETITION CHAOS
Shopping centres throughout the state in 2012 waged legal battles to lock competitors out of the market – at the ultimate cost to shoppers, councils and ratepayers.
The retail turf wars stalled major shopping centre developments in Queensland, tying up a string of new projects in multimillion-dollar appeals, with centre owners and developers accused of entangling their competitors in red tape for years.
Retail analysts said the result was that councils were lumbered with massive legal bills and shoppers faced less choice and higher prices.
More than 20 appeals against shopping centre and retail plans were lodged in the Planning and Environment court in the two years prior.
Among them was an attempt by retail giant Westfield to block the state’s first Costco outlet at North Lakes, north of Brisbane.
BUNDY’S BATTLE
Developers in the Burnett Shire moved in on each other in 2008 in a bid to eradicate their competition.
Vying to win over the majority of shoppers, Stockwell locked their competition into check by lodging an appeal against a shopping centre development on Rifle Range Road.
The battle between the Stockwell Woolworths complex on Bargara Road and the neighbourhood-scale shopping centre at Innes Park cost Lascorp at least $200,000.
But as the Stockwell development neared completion, Lascorp national development manager Robert Harris said at the time the company was “prepared to take on the fight”.
“There is enough population increase for both of us,” Mr Harris said.
Stockwell development manager Michael Farrell said the company legally appealed Lascorp’s initial application for one fundamental reason.
“The town plan doesn’t support it,” Mr Farrell said.
LOCATION ISSUES
Few are as passionate about their patches as Gold Coasters so the drawn-out bid for a Nobby Beach development surprised no one.
Developer Daniel Veitch in September 2022 scrapped plans for a 12-storey tower in the heart of Nobby Beach, instead unveiling a new high-end shopping centre proposal in the heart of the oceanfront village.
Veitch, who abandoned his tower plans in late 2021 and put the site on the market, was taking a third crack at redeveloping the corner of the Gold Coast Highway and Lavarack Road with Oxley House, a three-storey complex which would transform a 2406sq/m site.
It is occupied by grocery shop The Farm, a butcher, cafes and shops, as well as restaurant The Backyard.
It comes amid a backdrop of concerns about the development of the southern Gold Coast.
WOMEN’S WAR
Massive hikes in rent were claimed to be behind an exodus of women’s fashion retailers from Logan’s Hyperdome in March 2022.
Women’s clothing outlet Sussan, which had operated at the centre from more than 12 years, shut its doors alongside W Lane and plus-size women’s clothing store Autograph.
Departing staff, who did not want to be named, said the state government’s Queensland Investment Corporation jacked up rents six months prior.
They said an average tenancy lease at the Hyperdome was valued at about $10,000 a week.
Logan shopper Kylie Morris said QIC needed to do more research into demographics before signing leasing deals.
“I hate having to go to Garden City or Carindale for ladies’ fashion.”
Other customers said they were considering driving from Logan to the Gold Coast and Coomera.
RETAILER WOES
Trinity Beach retailers in 2018 feared they would become casualties of a supermarket war unless Cairns Regional Council imposed a ceasefire.
Woolworths pushed ahead with its aggressive national expansion plans, including a submission on its proposal to build a 4350sq/m shopping centre at the corner of Trinity Beach Rd and the Captain Cook Highway.
Trinity Beach News owner Bruce Sharples collected 570 objections to the project over a week and lodged them with the council.
“The locals give us good support and I think we’d still get good support, but ultimately we would lose some customers,” he said at the time.
“The way retail is at the moment, we’re not in a position to lose any.”
TOWNSVILLE CHALLENGE
A legal challenge against the development of a $50 million entertainment precinct in Aitkenvale across from Stockland Shopping Centre was in 2015 dropped in the latest chapter of the city’s shopping wars.
Townsville City Council in 2014 approved a development application for the three-storey precinct by Stockland, but an appeal was lodged in the Planning and Environment Court by rival developer Dexus Property Group, which owns Willows Shopping Centre.
But Dexus Property Group filed a notice of discontinuance in January 2015, leaving the precinct, which will be adjacent to the Stockland Shopping Centre, free to go ahead.
In 2019 Stockland said it was still reviewing plans for land holdings adjacent to its Aitkenvale shopping centre.
SUNNY STOUSH
It was the 15-year war that ended badly for the small businesses.
In September 2022 the drawn-out stoush between North Buderim IGA and Coles on the Sunshine Coast ended when the IGA closed its doors.
The saga started in 2007 when developers made plans on the prime land across from the IGA.
After the then-Maroochy Shire Council rejected an application to build a centre featuring Woolworths and Aldi, in 2016 the amalgamated Sunshine Coast Council also refused an application after a flood of objections.
However in 2020 the Planning and Environment Court ruled in favour of the developer, and the nearly 5000sq/m Coles complex opened.
The result would ultimately be the closure of the IGA, a loss for local suppliers and potential hard times for the other nine shops in the complex.
“The loyal customers we had are certainly not happy we’re closing but they understand the economics of it all,” Cornetts IGA chief executive Graham Booysen said.
NAME CHANGE
Sugarland’s name change to Stockland Bundaberg in 2017 kickstarted a debate among locals who didn’t feel a name change was right for the local shopping mall.
The centre, which opened in 1978, had always be known as Sugarland – a fact highlighted by a NewsMail poll at the time showing 89 per cent of readers still planned to use the mall’s original title.
However, Stockland Bundaberg centre manager Peter Cocking said at the time the centre was excited about the rebranding.
“It’s a fresh new name for Bundaberg’s favourite shopping destination, but still the shopping centre our customers know and love,” he said.
Originally published as Qld shopping centres: The battles to get them built, stopped or changed
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