REVEALED: Shopping mall’s “high risk” new food plans

Centre to create new food shops, including an experience not seen outside of Sydney in expansion plan.

A jacaranda tree in Pound St, outside Grafton Food Emporium, has traditionally been one of the first to bloom and once again it has an early good show of purple.

A GRAFTON shopping centre is applying to make additions to its centre to add what it calls a "new food experience" that no other outlet outside of Sydney is doing.

The Grafton Food Emporium has submitted a development application to Clarence Valley Council to add an additional commercial floor area of 72 sqm, and build a new entry/arcade on its eastern side.

It propose to put additional food shops in the extension of the commercial area, and in a submission to council it said its concept is "high risk" and hoped to be an attraction for Grafton.

"The concept is Moroccan chicken, butterflied and cooked over hot coals and served with garlic, hummus, salad, chips and bubba ghanoush," the director of Regional Centre Management Philip Hanna wrote in the submission.

Plans for the extension of the Grafton Food Emporium

"If successful, this will be our training centre for further outlets."

Mr Hanna stated the centre has suffered from the effects of COVID-19, in that rents were significantly reduced, or even nullified for many of their tenants and that while they had been planning for more than twelve months, they would proceed to stimulate the economy "in their own small way".

The change in design requires two car parks to be removed, and the proposal will generate an additional parking demand of 2.4 spaces.

The shopping centre has requested an exemption from a contribution for the shortfall in parking spaces, with the submission stating the exemption would give a definite green light to its start.

Plans for the extension of the Grafton Food Emporium

Officers recommended council approve the development application, with the requirement the shopping centre provide five spaces that were time limited to a maximum time of 30 minutes. The report states this was an option that had already been discussed with the developer.

Council's Environment, Planning and Community Committee passed the officers' recommendation unanimously at its meeting on Tuesday, and it will be recommended to the full meeting next Tuesday.

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