Garden City, Booragoon

infobox shopping mall
shopping_mall_name = Garden City Shopping Centre


image_width =200px
caption =
location = Booragoon, Western Australia, Australia
opening_date = 1972
owner= 75% AMP's Australian Core Property Portfolio, 25% WestART
manager= AMP Capital Shopping Centres
developer=
number_of_stores = 201
number_of_anchors = 5
floor_area = 72,286 sqm
parking =
floors= 1
website = [http://www.gardencity.com.au gardencity.com.au]

AMP Garden City Shopping Centre, usually known simply as Garden City, is a major regional shopping centre in the city of Perth, Western Australia, located at the corner of Marmion Street and Riseley Street in the southern suburb of Booragoon. Garden City is marjority owned by AMP through its Australian Core Property Portfolio.

It is centred in a mainly middle class catchment of approximately 600,000 people. In recent years there have been, on average, 13 million annual individual visits to the centre, generating an estimated turnover of over AU$500 million annually. Garden City has been owned and managed by AMP Shopping Centres since 1986.

History and Development

In the late 1960s, the planning department of the state government drew up a plan for several 'sub-regional' retail centres, which would form the commercial and economic focus of each 'node', and take the retail burden away from the CBD. [cite book |last=Stephenson |first=Gordon |authorlink= Gordon Stephenson |coauthors= |editor= |others= |title= The Design of central Perth: Some Problems and Possible Solutions|edition= |series=A Study made for the Perth Central Area Design Co-ordinating Committee|year= 1975|month= |publisher= UWA |location= |language= |isbn=0 85564 107 X | pages=44|quote= chap. 7 item 3 Regional shopping centres have been established in several suburbs. ..., and generally take the form of a pedestrian precinct surrounded by large car parks. [see also 7.2 & 7.4.] ] Booragoon, in the southern suburbs, was chosen as one of the ideal locations.cite book | title = Western Landscapes | author = Joseph Gentilli | year = 1979 | publisher = University of Western Australia | isbn = 085564155X | pages = p.459 ]

Work on Garden City was undertaken by Hooker Corporation, and began in 1970. In December 1971, Lady Lloyd Jones placed a time-capsule in the ground. The centre was opened in 1972, and immediately became popular as the nexus of the Melville Civic Centre Complex, which had been established after the Melville Council Offices were built in 1968. The site was in the midst of sandy bush, not far from Applecross Senior High School and Wireless Hill Park.

Redevelopments

The original precinct

To visitors today, the original section of Garden City consists of everything from the Davy Street entrance (where the Post Office is situated), to where one reaches the newsagent. Garden City remained this way (with less than 100 shops) until 1983.

New department stores

In the early 1980s, moves were afoot to upgrade Garden City to meet growing demand. The shopping centre's owners went after big-name department stores. One department store retailer David Jones had withdrawn from Western Australia, and so Boans (West Australian predecessor to Myer) and Aherns (since taken over by David Jones) were selected to build two department stores. In 1983, the first major redevelopment went ahead at a cost of AU$25 million.

Foodcourt and cinemas

In the next decade or so, demand increased, resulting in the first major expansion in over a decade. In 1994, the current foodcourt was built. This was followed in 1995 with the cinema complex. The new floorspace of 48,000 square metres was however still considered inadequate, and so a second expansion was planned.

Major redevelopment

The second major redevelopment of Garden City commenced in March 1999 and was completed in December 2000. The main addition was a new eastern section with three parallel malls. Another big change, was the creation of a new 'Marketplace' in the area previously occupied by Kmart, and the re-location of K-Mart to the north-eastern corner of the shopping complex. A new bus station was constructed to replace the old one. Another new addition to the shopping centre was the $2.71 million Newmart discount supermarket which opened its doors on December 2, 2000, creating 120 jobs for local people. Newmart would later go on to become an Action supermarket in time for Christmas 2003 and then a Woolworths supermarket in late 2005. This phase of expansion removed much of the ground level parking, replacing it with undercover and rooftop parking. Apart from minor modifications to several satellite buildings such as the demolition of a service station in 2005, the shopping centre has remained largely unchanged since.

Almondbury Road traffic

As part of the upgrade to the shopping centre in 2000, Almondbury Road, the centre's main northern boundary access, was modified so as to prevent vehicles entering the complex if coming from the west. The plan was to encourage vehicles to use Riseley Street rather than the streets of suburban Ardross.

The changes were welcomed by some local residents who saw a substantial reduction in the amount of traffic that had been using local streets to access the shopping centre. However it was equally disliked by many local residents who could no longer easily access the shopping centre, having to go via Riseley Street instead. Particular problems were caused for some residents trying to get to Applecross Senior High School from Booragoon, who were compelled to go around the shopping centre - a route which involved up to 5 sets of traffic lights within 2 kilometres - rather than the previous shorter and easier route.

As a consequence, intended or otherwise, the road became the City of Melville's worst road blackspot by some margin. The option of simply changing the access to permit vehicles to access from the west was politically difficult as it would increase traffic on suburban streets. In March 2006 the local council held a community forum to determine what was the best solution for Almondbury Road. At this forum the local residents decided that access would be permitted from the west as had been the case prior to 2000.

Architectural Features

As part of the major redevelopment in 2000, a significant number of new striking architectural and aesthetic features were added. Of note was a three story atrium at the eastern end of the complex in the Fashion Mall.

Transport

A key Transperth bus station for the southern suburbs, the Booragoon Bus Station, is located on the shopping centre premises. It links to such routes as the 940 to Perth city centre, and the 501 to Fremantle. Garden City is amply provided with both undercover and open-air parking.

Facilities

At present, the main shopping complex has a floorspace of 65,000 square metres. The entire centre is situated on approximately 300,000 square metres of land. The main shopping complex consists of a long main mall with several wings and side malls. Coles and Woolworths are the two principle supermarkets, while the anchor department stores include Myer, David Jones and discount department store Kmart. Notable speciality stores include Dymocks Bookstores, City Beach Surf-wear, Dick Smith Electronics, Tandy Electronics and Freedom Furniture, with a further 200 speciality stores catering for all tastes.

In addition to shopping the main shopping complex, Garden City houses:
*an 8-screen Hoyts cinema
*a public library
*a post office
*several external banking buildings
*an office complex centered around the Alcoa and Gateway buildings
*another office complex known as Garden City House
*the Melville City Council offices
*a major regional bus station

Major Precincts

The main shopping complex can be broken into several main areas:
*the original precinct, centered at the sky-roof atrium which includes Woolworths (a former Action/Newmart store)
*a foodcourt, with stores such as McDonald's, which leads to the cinema
*a 'Marketplace' which includes Coles
*a central 'Fashion Mall' which includes many boutique outlets such as Kookai and Witchery
*two diametrically opposite north-south wings leading to David Jones and Myer
*a northern mall parallel to the central mall that includes stores such as ???
*a southern mall parallel to the central mall that includes stores such as Dick Smith Electronics
*a north-south mall at the eastern end of the centre that leads to stores such as Kmart

Major Retailers

* Kmart discount department store
* Woolworths supermarket
* Coles supermarket
* Myer department store
* David Jones department store
* Freedom Furniture

Major food restaurants

Major food retailers within the centre include:
*McDonalds
*Red Rooster
*KFC
*The Kebab Co.

No major food restaurants reside outside of the centre.

References

Further reading

*"Builder, The", Jan-Feb 2001 p-43-50. 'Upgrade introduces new shopping concepts',
*"Melville City Community Paper", Apr 1997, p.18
*"Garden City Shopping Centre", Saunders, H. 1987, Western Australian Institute of Technology, Perth

External links

* [http://www.gardencity.com.au Garden City website]
* [http://www.melville.wa.gov.au City of Melville website]