Box Hill Central: Vicinity Centres reveals centre upgrade plans

One of Melbourne’s busiest shopping centres is set for a huge makeover, with new stores and restaurants on the way.

A render of the proposed Box Hill Central Shopping Centre upgrade.

Box Hill Central shopping centre is set for a huge makeover, with new stores and restaurants set to transform the busy precinct.

Vicinity Centres has started construction works at the centre, the first stage of its plan to create an integrated world-class mixed-use precinct in Box Hill.

The rundown mall is set for a complete refresh, including new facades, floors, ceilings, furniture, lighting, store fronts and dining.

A number of new major and speciality retailers, including a new Coles supermarket, will launch in mid-2022. The names of the new stores are set to be revealed in coming months.

Box Hill Central’s south shopping precinct will be a key part of the upgrade, with the current works covering more than 10,500sq m of ground floor retail and carpark lobby areas.

Box Hill Central centre manager Natalie Kyall said the redevelopment would significantly improve access and flow to the centre and transform Box Hill Central into a retail destination of the future.

A number of new stores and restaurants are set to open at Box Hill Central.

Vicinity Centres also plans to reconfigure the southern retail precinct (from the former Big W, leading to Woolworths) to improve accessibility, including a new entrance way and the introduction of dual-frontage restaurants facing on to Carrington Rd.

A new southern entry point from Carrington Rd is expected to attract more than one million visitors a year, with three new travelators and a new customer lift connecting all levels of the carpark.

The southern precinct will also benefit from a reconfiguration of the mall to accommodate new kiosks and an extension to the main internal avenue to create three new permanent retail stores.

Big W and Harris Scarfe have closed at the centre in recent years.

Shoppers on Whitehorse Leader’s Facebook page have called for more variety in the centre, with Kmart, TK Maxx, a bakery, pub, florist, JB Hi-Fi, H&M and Apple Store among the new stores people would like to see.