Woolworths Mernda: Supermarket part of new Mernda Town Centre

The store in Melbourne’s north is part of a new $500 million shopping and dining precinct, set to create hundreds of jobs.

A state-of-the-art shopping and dining precinct is on the way for a growing area of Melbourne’s north, with a $500 million development set to create hundreds of jobs.

Woolworths has announced stage one of the “exciting new shopping and community development” will start this week in Mernda.

Located on the corner of Bridge Inn Rd and Plenty Rd, about 25km from Melbourne’s CBD, stage one of the Mernda Town Centre development will be next to the new Mernda railway station.

It will include a modern market-style Woolworths supermarket, carparking, restaurants and cafes, and various specialty retailers, offices and community features.

An aerial view of the proposed new Mernda Town Centre.

Injecting more than $110 million of investment into the Whittlesea area, the first stage of the new town centre will create about 300 jobs during construction.

The entire precinct is estimated to be worth more than $500 million and will deliver a total of 1000 ongoing jobs on completion of the project.

Woolworths state development manager Don Foulds said: “As we commence stage one of the development, we celebrate a major step forward in our vision to revitalise the Mernda Town Centre into a truly integrated, thriving, and convenient community and shopping destination.

“We are very excited to have recently entered into an agreement with the new owners to purchase and develop the overall Town Centre.”

Ray Zelouf from Occasio, Don Foulds from Woolworths, Chris Eddy – Administrator – Whittlesea Council, Danielle Green MP, George Rydell, builder at the sod turning on Tuesday.

The new owners, who are the shareholders of Melbourne-based investment and fund manager Occasio, appointed a builder upon acquiring the site in April, with the view to ensuring the shopping centre would be open and operational by mid-next year.

Occasio director Ray Zelouf said: “We are committed to fast-tracking the construction and delivery of this much-needed shopping centre which will cater to the needs of the growing local community.”

Yan Yean state Labor MP Danielle Green said the long awaited Town Centre would mean many more opportunities for Mernda residents to work, shop and dine out close to home.

On completion the 25ha town centre will include a number of community, residential and commercial features, including landscaped public open spaces, high quality apartments, a range of specialty stores and a dining precinct – serviced by public transport like the new train station, new bus services and road upgrades.

The project is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.