Boronia Mall: Empty stores in once thriving centre

Back in the day it was packed with traders and shoppers. Now it’s largely been abandoned by both. Take a look inside Boronia Mall.

Several shops have been listed for sale at Boronia Mall, as shoppers continue to stay away from the complex after repeated Covid lockdowns.

The store between the newsagency and post office has been listed for sale by Appleby Real Estate along with another retail space within the mall, as foot traffic remains quiet in the centre following Covid.

There are five empty stores in the mall, including the once popular Gloria Jeans cafe and Vic Di Luzio jewellers, which has closed after 43 years in Boronia.

It follows the departure of a number of popular businesses from the centre in recent years, including a deli and lolly shop.

When Leader visited the centre on Wednesday, it was quiet, with only a handful of customers walking through.

The shopping centre is strata title, meaning all the shops are individually owned.

Visitor Tyler Orpwood said he had lived in Boronia his whole life and remembered coming to the mall as kid, but hasn’t shopped there very much in the past 10 years.

“It’s a bit sad to see so many shops closed,” he said,

“There used to be a lolly shop, and the cafe (Gloria Jeans) that everyone loved, but now there’s not much reason to come here.”

Michelle Gates moved her business Here & There Makers into the mall last September.

“There are some major problems in the mall and we are struggling a bit,” she said.

“We could certainly be a lot busier and there is not a lot of traffic that comes into the mall.”

Ms Gates said one of the major problems was many people who owned businesses in the mall were only interested in treating them as an investment.

“I think it could stay in individual titles if the body corporate actually enforced rules that required people to actually run a retail business in the mall,” she said.

“People are actually able to buy (shops) and rent it and just use it for storage space.”

Ms Gates said despite a number of empty shops, she wasn’t able to find a space to rent in the mall to run sewing workshops which she found “quite bizarre”.

She said she remembered when the mall was thriving.

“I had my first job in the mall at Speeds shoe shop when I was 15,” she said.

“I remember having a milkshake upstairs at the cafe.”

Ms Gates said the mall could never compete with big complexes like Knox or Eastland, but believed it could become a great centre again with niche businesses, like a bulk food store or retro 70s cafe.

“My feeling is the mall could be an amazing community space and I’d love to see it turned into an ethical hub,” she said.

Another trader, who didn’t wish to be named, said foot traffic had been slow, like many other shopping centres.

Centre manager Lawrence Peresso said the centre had been quiet since Covid, and believed many other centres were also still struggling.

“(But) I’m quite happy with how it’s going and we’ve got a few new shops coming in,” Mr Peresso said.

“We’ve only got about five empty shops now.”

He said only one shop had closed due to the impacts of Covid.

Mr Peresso said the shop previously used by Gloria Jeans had recently been sold.

Another cafe is also set to fill some of the space previously occupied by the popular Downunder cafe.