Harbour Town shopping centre: Full story of how Biggera Waters brand outlet was built and opened

Australia was declared “over-shopped” by experts as Harbour Town bosses set out to prove them wrong on a day which changed the Gold Coast forever.

The opening of Harbour Town in late 1999 was a moment more than a decade in the making.

The Bigger Waters complex had endured a long and difficult fight to get approved by finally being built in the late 1990s.

Fast-forward to 1999 and it was time for the $100m retail mecca to finally open.

More than 90 per cent of its retail space was leased two months ahead of its opening, with more than 50,000 sqm of space.

Its original tenants included Australia’s largest Nike shop, Table Eight, David Jones Warehouse Store and pharmacy, a Medihelp medical centre, BBC Hardware, Mikasa, Esprit, Polo Ralph Lauren, Corning, Franklins Fresh, Calvin Klein and Georgio Armani stores.

A 14-screen Readings cinema was also built

General Manager Terry Wimberley on opening day.

Harbour Town general manager Terry Wimberley said it was split into three distinct precincts – “Traders Lane for “brand direct” stores, Merchants Pier for convenience stores and The Walk for the 14-screen cinemaplex and alfresco dining”.

“We’re really going after those three different markets and we’ve done research on those three different markets,’’ he said at the time.

Dutch banking giant ING bought a $50m stake in the project ahead of its opening.

Developer Lewis Land Corp’s shopping centre development general manager Aaron Hechtman. said he expected strong foot traffic despite the large number of existing shopping centres in the city.

“People say that Australia is over-shopped,’’ he said at the time

Erika Berner models clothing and accessories supplied by discout fashion stores at the harbour Town complex during its opening week in December 1999.

“We think rather that it is a situation of over-copied concepts, so we went outside the box and looked at what we could do that would be different and that would make people come to us.’’

Ross Honeywill, director of KPMG’s Centre for Consumer Behaviour said it “reflected the changing face of consumers and that the centre was “unashamedly” targeting 54 per cent of consumers who sought “quality at a price”.

Opening day arrived on December 7, 1999 and it was a suitably busy affair as thousands of people arrived.

Gold Coast area manager for City Beach Surf Shops Vicki Chalaley helps out at their new store on Harbour Town’s opening day.

People climbed the walls and elbowed each other to get at the bargains on offer.

Management, traders and shoppers hailed the opening day as a success.

By 10am the shops were full and busloads of people on shopping tours began arriving.

The Sheridan linen store was among the most popular, with shoppers clambering over each other to get cheap towels.

The queue to the cash register lined the perimeter of the store, there was a bottleneck at the entrance and extra stock had to be ordered three hours after the doors opened.

Sue Brewster and Angela Grange shopping at Harbour Town on opening day

New Zealander Judy Glue was one of the first shoppers and spent several hundred dollars.

“I think this is fantastic and I’ve never seen anything as good so I’ve stocked up madly,” she said.

Carrara resident Natalie Mezgec also spent up a storm.

“I think I am going to get into trouble for spending all this money,” she said.

“I snuck in here and look what happened.”

Mr Wimberley told media at the time that opening day crowds had exceeded all expectations.`

The key thing is they’re all leaving with bags, they’ not just walking around looking,’’ he said.

Mr Honeywill said Harbour Town was ``showing a lot of wisdom’’.

``Retail success in the future is about knowing who you’re in business for,’’ he said.

Now, 25 years and several major upgrades later, Harbour Town continues to grow.

INSIDE STORY: THE ‘FARCICAL’ BATTLE OVER HARBOUR TOWN’S FUTURE

The Gold Coast loves its shopping centres.

It made history in 1969 when Southport’s Sundale, opened and immediately became the biggest in the state.

The following decades would see Pacific Fair, Australia Fair and Robina Town Centre all open to great fanfare and numerous expansions.

Harbour Town Shopping Centre opened 25 years ago in December 1999 and was the first of its kind – a brand outlet direct retail mecca.

It was a big moment for the Gold Coast in the dying weeks of both the 1990s and the Millennium.

Harbour Town. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

However, its journey to getting built began more than a decade earlier in the mid-late 1980s.

The project was unveiled by Lewis Land Corporation in 1987 and immediately secured the backing of South Coast MP Russ Hinze.

The initial plan, pitched in late 1987, called for an 80ha town centre that would become home to 80,000 people and a shopping centre at its heart.

However, opposition to the project was swift and massive. Then-council planning boss Lex Bell, for one, declared it would “destroy the city’s strategic plan and future planning of the area”.

Table Eight Clearance Centre was one of the featured factory outlets at Harbour Town Biggera Waters

The council was given only 50 days to set planning conditions for the site, something Alderman Bell said was “physically impossible because no one will give us a copy of the plan”.

By February 1989 the Nationals state government announced it would rezone the site over the council’s staunch opposition.

Mr Bell, who by this point was mayor, reiterated council’s disapproval of the matter “on principle”.

“I am disappointed but not surprised to hear of the impending rezoning,’’ he said.

“Council has never had the opportunity to consider the merits or demerits of the proposal.

The complex was at the heart of a long battle.

Gold Coast Small Business Association president Greg Rix declared the public consultation period a “farce”.

“The thing will go ahead,’’ he said.

“It’s a farce. The Minister is well aware council is against the proposal, small business is against it and the ratepayers are also against it.

“This rezoning should have been stopped 12 months ago.”

Lewis Land Corporation director Deric Finney said “at least 60 per cent of the site “would be open space”.

“What we want to build is a new town centre to serve the rapidly growing northern Gold Coast into the 21st century,’’ he said

The cinema at Harbour Town.

The situation took another turn in March 1990.

The Nationals government was gone and Labor’s Wayne Goss was in power.

His Cabinet overturned the rezoning approval of Harbour Town, by this point a $300m project.

“If Lewis Land Corp wants to proceed with the development, it still has the right to go to the Gold Coast City Council in the proper way,’’ Deputy Premier Tom Burns said.

“The public could then have its rightful say through objections and local government appeal procedures.’’

The project appeared to be dead in the water, but by late 1994 the Goss government again changed its tune, and Local Government Minister Terry Mackenroth pushed through a “Ministerial amendment’’ that avoided the need for the developer to go through council’s town planning process. The Harbour Town Act was its own special legislation governing the creation of the complex and surrounding development zone.

Construction finally began in mid-1998 with Lewis Land announcing it would be a direct factory outlet.

NEXT WEEK: INSIDE THE OPENING