New Clifford Gardens Shopping Centre owner to start discussions with Toowoomba council, community over upgrades

It paid $145m for one of Toowoomba’s largest shopping centres in a bargain deal. Now the new owner has lifted the lid on the timeline for a series of upgrades and how they might look.

Toowoomba's Clifford Gardens Shopping Centre has been bought by Elanor Investors Group, in partnership with Savills Investment Management, for $145m.

The new owners of one of Toowoomba’s largest shopping centres will start discussions with the council and community soon about its planned $15m upgrade of the property.

Elanor Investors Group revealed in May it had bought Clifford Gardens Shopping Centre in Newtown for $145m.

The company previous outlined a number of changes would be coming to the centre to improve customer experience and profitability while reducing its environmental footprint.

Now head of retail, development and mixed use Matt Healy said it had refined the upgrade project based on further feedback.

“While we have only recently taken over ownership, we are well underway with our planned repositioning of Clifford Gardens, elevating the assets already strong convenience offer," he said.

“We look forward to investing significant capital and enhancing the centres occupancy, largely through remixing the current tenancy composition.

“We are in process of introducing a new national mini-major tenant alongside additional medical, health and wellbeing usages.”

Mr Healy said the full plan would be revealed after further discussions took place before the end of the year.

“We have embraced the local communities’ feedback and in line with our asset initiatives, we have identified further improvements to create greater accessibility and convenience for the Clifford Garden’s customer base,” he said.

“The strategy will include a new entrance statement to increase convenience for the Coles Supermarket precinct, the introduction of ‘click and collect’ and ‘direct to boot’ facilities for Big W, Woolworths and Coles supermarkets as well as the introduction of multiple new pad site offerings, including national fast food operators on James Street.

“Our Toowoomba council and community engagement process associated with these improvements will commence within the coming months.”

Mr Healy said the upgrades would take place over several years as part of gradual improvement.

“We are currently in the process to reduce the centre’s environmental footprint and working alongside the Centre team to ensure we meet the needs and requirements of our customers,” he said.

Our plans entail spending $15+ million on the centre over the next five years to enhance occupancy, customer amenity and experience.

“This will help to generate construction jobs and ongoing employment for the Toowoomba region.”