By Ruza Zivkusic
THEexpansion of Watergardens Town Centre is becoming visible to locals and passersby.
Residents driving along Kings and Sydenham roads in Taylors Lakes are starting to notice developments valued at $150 million to the nine-year-old centre that will include 100 new specialty shops and up to 1800 new car park spaces.
Residents have welcomed the change saying the expansion would attract residents to shop locally.
Delahey Action Group secretary David Anderson said he hoped the centre would “fill in some of the gaps” in the area.
“It will make a big difference because some people would have gone to Highpoint Shopping Centre or to Airport West for the shopping,” Mr Anderson said.
“We’re more concerned about the State Government knowing full well that this was going to be a shopping centre,” he said. But then it didn’t continue the electrification of the line out to Sunbury and stopped it at Watergardens, he added.
St Albans Traders Association secretary Asip Demiri said he believed the centre’s growth would bring more competition to other local businesses.
“There is only so much business going around. All the landlords want is red dollars but there is not enough of the dollars coming around because there is just too many of them (business owners),” Mr Demiri said.
The centre manager of Watergardens Town Centre, Steve Edgerton, said he believed the centre would start to compete with Maribyrnong’s Highpoint Shopping Centre once completed. “To watch this take shape on a plan and to see it happening is pretty exciting from our perspective,” Mr Edgerton said.
“For the last couple of years we’ve been taking feedback from customers to what they want,” he said.
QIC project director Richard Hogg said there would be a masterplan for the centre, once it was completed, to meet the growth of the area in the coming years.
“After this stage it will not be fully developed, there will be a lot of vacant space. We have the ability to cater for retail growth and commercial growth for many years to come,” he said.
The project was expected to be completed by April next year.
Sydenham Learning and Information Centre, which is part of QIC’s long-term masterplan for Watergardens Shopping Centre, is also expected to open later this year.
