Westfield Warringah Mall


Westfield Warringah Mall is a large indoor/outdoor shopping centre in the suburb of Brookvale in the Northern Beaches region of Sydney.

Transport

Westfield Warringah Mall has bus connections to the Sydney CBD, Chatswood and the Northern Beaches including Manly, Dee Why, Warriewood and Mona Vale, as well as local surrounding suburbs. It is served by Forest Coach Lines and State Transit which also runs the B-Line services. The majority of the bus service are located on Pittwater Road and the bus interchange inside the centre. There is no railway station at Brookvale; the nearest station is located at Chatswood.
Westfield Warringah Mall also has multi level car parks with 4, 650 spaces.

History

Warringah Mall opened on 4 April 1963 and was developed by Hammerson Group and was the second largest shopping centre at the time with Chadstone Shopping Centre being the largest. The centre was partially built on the site of 'Brookvale House' which was built by Sydney Alexander Malcolm in 1883 was sold in 1961 to the Hooker Investment Corporation. Warringah Mall contained around 50 stores, including H. G. Palmer, Nock & Kirby, Franklins, Woolworths and David Jones. Ten years later, the centre saw the opening of a new Grace Bros. store which was upgraded from a homemakers store in 1973. The same year a fire broke out in the original Woolworths store which killed two female workers. Fifty more speciality stores have also opened, followed by the opening of the Hoyts Twin Cinema Complex in the early 1980s.
Warringah Mall was featured in the movie BMX Bandits with two young BMX experts, P.J. and Goose, meet Judy who was working as a trolley collector. In the mid-1980s, a Target store was opened along with 20 specialty stores. To commemorate the Australian Bicentenary, Warringah Shire Council commissioned local sculptor Victor Cusack to create a central fountain for the mall. Entitled "Pacific Family", it was unveiled by Deputy Shire President Julie Sutton on 23 November 1988.
Warringah Mall was included in the sale of Hammerson's Australian property portfolio to AMP Capital in 1994. In 1998, Warringah Mall underwent stage 2 of redevelopment and was officially opened in December 1999. The development included a new food court and entertainment precincts with the opening of Hoyts and Galaxy World, it also included the opening of new stores next to the food court including Rebel Sport, Surf Dive ‘n' Ski and Warringah Mall Library which opened near Hoyts. The old areas also had a makeover which was to introduce a quality home wares precinct with retailers such as Wheel & Barrow and Dick Smith Powerhouse in 2000. Franklins closed in 2001 and was by replaced by Priceline Pharmacy. The same year German global discount supermarket Aldi opened outside the centre on the corner of Cross and Green Street. Aldi previously had plans to open inside the centre but was rejected by AMP Capital due to disputes between rival supermarkets Coles and Woolworths.
In March 2003 Westfield Group established a 25 percent ownership with AMP Capital, this was changed to 50 percent in October 2012. AMP Capital and the Westfield Group swapped interests in seven centres, including Warringah Mall which became a 50/50 joint venture between the two companies. As part of the deal, centre management transferred from AMP to Westfield with the centre rebranded Westfield Warringah Mall. In July 2014, as part of a restructure of the Westfield Group, it came under the control of the Scentre Group.

Recent development

In mid-2015, Westfield Warringah Mall underwent a $310 million redevelopment. Stage 1 of the redevelopment has been completed with the opening of the 5 level multi-storey car park and a new fresh food court opened by My Kitchen Rules 2015 winners Will and Steve.
Stage 2 of the redevelopment was completed in November 2016. Myer was temporarily closed for refurbishment and was opened by Australian model Jennifer Hawkins.
Stage 2 consists of:
Plans for the $226 million redevelopment will include a new relocated Hoyts Cinema on level 3, addition of 35 food outlets including licensed premises together, 15 speciality retailers, 10 small outlets and one major store. They will be located on the three levels as part of the additional 10,000sqm of extra retail space. The existing food court on level 1 will be expanded to the south with addition of six food court outlets. The restaurant precinct on level two will feature views overlooking Brookvale Creek and the Warringah golf course. The redevelopment will add modifications to existing specialty stores and the existing Target store on the ground level are also planned. The number of parking spaces will increase to a total of 5,093. This development follows the 2008 master plan of the centre. A 14-month timeline has been estimated for completion of the project. The plans for the centre had been decided in May.

Tenants

Westfield Warringah Mall has 131,605m² of floor space. The major retailers include David Jones, Myer, H&M, Sephora, Cotton On, Target, Big W, Bunnings, Woolworths, Coles, Rebel Sport, JB Hi-Fi, Anaconda, iPlay and Hoyts Cinema.

Incidents