Coffs Central
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centre profile Coffs Central There’s a new ‘down-town’ at Coffs Harbour; the main retail strip of the city has been transformed with the final piece of the jigsaw, the totally redeveloped Coffs Central, about to reach completion within the coming months. Owners Gowings have a long history in Australian retail and their approach to this redevelopment has been entirely ‘retail focused’. The new Coffs Central sits at the heart of the new ‘down-town’, providing a premium location for discerning retailers. The stunning frontage to the main retail strip. t first sight of it, you’d wonder components overflowing from the century at the corner of George and how Gowings ever got hold of sumptuous eating establishments Market Streets, part of Australia’s retail Coffs Central; slap bang in the flanking it. history with its genesis dating back to Amiddle of the major retail street; Coffs Harbour – according to CSIRO, 1868. Gowings moved out of retail in an obviously powerful, very sleek, the most liveable climate in Australia – 2001 investing across different asset architecturally striking retail nestled between a high mountain classes to take advantage of changing development. It’s a double story backdrop and literally dozens of unspoilt economic cycles. 70% of its core structure with an impressive glass beaches. It’s idyllic, surrounded by investments are in shopping centres frontage; floor to ceiling, state of the art luxurious vegetation and exotic farmland located in northern NSW including Port shopfronts on two levels; and on the – bananas abound, as do blueberries; Central in Port Macquarie. upper level, a huge balcony providing then there’s tourism, fishing, Coffs Central has undergone a a 50 metre long al-fresco dining manufacturing. Coffs Harbour has a massive redevelopment and is extension to the Food Court overlooking campus of Southern Cross University, scheduled for completion later this year. the main retail strip of the city. You several radio stations along with a To understand Coffs Central, to might wonder which major shopping public and a private hospital. Its appreciate Gowings’ transformation of centre player owns it? economy is sound, prosperous and it the centre, how they came to acquire It’s the heart of Coffs Harbour right continues to grow at an exceptional such a jewel, you need to look at the opposite City Square and with 170 metres rate; the population of the region is history. Alan Bond consolidated the site, of prime street frontage; it dominates approaching the 75,000 mark. which included what was formerly a the centre of Harbour Drive, the main And at its epicentre? Coffs Central. section of Castle St, the Walton’s store retail strip. It presents well from the It’s an investment by Gowings, owner and several other business properties, 9 metre wide, raised pavement, dotted of the former iconic Sydney department back in the early 1980s; you can see with a variety of al-fresco dining store which stood for the best part of a why. At that time Coffs Harbour was 14 SHOPPING CENTRE NEWS COPYRIGHT© 2013 SHOPPING CENTRE NEWS – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPYRIGHT© 2013 SHOPPING CENTRE NEWS – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED SHOPPING CENTRE NEWS 15 already well established as a favourite by car parking didn’t really warrant creating an external, central community executives. John Gowing M.D. is really As a result, Coffs Central didn’t just with some 120 specialties. Gowings holiday destination for those to the aesthetic external design! Develop a focal point; a venue for the weekly food ‘hands on’, so is the team. Garth adopt a new name and a redesign, but didn’t try to compete; they saw Coffs south, Sydney included. As well, it had centre on a main street of a city or markets, for displays, exhibitions, Grundy is Gowings GM and Stephen it accepted its role and position as a Central as a different product altogether. all the credentials to be a fashionable large town however, and eighties’ performance art and the like. Byers runs Leasing and Development major contributor to the character and and smart location for retirees along shopping centre architecture was often But whatever the Council and Management. There’s no demarcation identity of Coffs Harbour’s retail heart. Coffs Central is ‘down-town’; with a younger sophisticated set looking a blight on the surrounds. property owners did, however much they here, everyone does anything that needs The Palms Centre had been it’s being transformed into for a ‘sea-change’. Its geographical There are countless instances and improved the architecture and ambience doing. Of course there are specialists – neglected; whilst the rest of the centre beauty coupled with the almost perfect the ‘Palms Shopping Centre’, prior to of the main street, the Palms Centre/ architects, shopfitters, designers, project of Coffs Harbour developed, the Palms a 7-days-a-week hub for the climate had made it a target for the Gowings acquisition, was a prime Coles supermarket blank wall on the managers et al – but everyone is in the Centre stood, as it always had been, Japanese players who at the time, had example. Coles had a full-line opposite side, and the overall general thick of it; they’re all at the sharp end an anachronistic monument to an community where the offerings decided Australia’s east coast was the supermarket with entry and checkouts presentation of the centre, detracted and they move as a single unit. architecturally deficient era. The of restaurants, alfresco cafes, perfect place for major property directly off the internal mall. Coffs from the efforts. Coles had already announced their opportunity was to integrate it with the investment. Harbour’s main retail strip featured its Palms Shopping Centre didn’t really departure prior to the Gowings modernised retail centre of the city, to specialty gourmet food, meeting It was acquired by Leda Holdings who rear wall – a breezeblock structure, fit into the AMP retail portfolio; Coles purchase; “We persuaded them to leave work together with the authorities and places, entertainment, activities, opened the ‘Palms Shopping Centre’ a blank wall dominating more than two had announced they would not renew early,” says John Gowing, “so we could other High Street retailers to create, in in 1986 with a Coles supermarket as thirds of the centre’s 170-odd metres the lease on its expiry in November get right into the redevelopment. It the words of Gowings, “a unique hyper- personal and business services, the ground floor anchor. In 1998 it of street frontage. 2013 and further, they had secured suited them and it suited us so they left.” local shopping centre which both boutique local designers, passed to the Commonwealth Bank who As time went by, in the almost a site for a new store a few hundred When you talk to John Gowing and appeals to 21st century shoppers and sold it to the Hunter Group in 2002; three decades since the centre was metres away. There were other options Garth Grundy, what comes across is that helps retailers to deal with the artisans, all form tight strands AMP purchased it in 2005. developed, Coffs Harbour’s main retail – Aldi perhaps, IGA maybe, or even a the original vision was the key and that challenges posed by online selling.” of community connection and But back in the mid-eighties, shopping strip changed both its character and remix of the space; AMP’s development vision was influenced by an expertise in And it’s here that the new Coffs centre development was about boxes; image to reflect the city’s new status pipeline was massive; did they need retail as well as retail property. John Central comes into its own. One could make the centre an essential huge rectangular monstrosities with as the centre of a sophisticated and more at Coffs Harbour? Not surprisingly, Gowing is the latest of four generations be forgiven for trying to determine how location and a regular external blank walls. There was a total prosperous coastal region. the Palms Centre was placed on the of the family that has steered the the centre, with a Coles about to depart, focus on the internal presentation – By 2011, Harbour Drive boasted market. company since 1868; a company that a small Big W with Best & Less on the rendezvous for Coffs Harbour the mall; people went ‘inside’, that was numerous smart shops, restaurants Enter Gowings! has prospered through 145 years of upper level, could compete with Park residents and visitors alike. where the action was; the box ‘externals’ and cafes. At its centre on the southern They do things differently here; it’s booms and busts, two world wars, major Beach Plaza, Coffs Harbour’s had little significance. It could be side, large steel and Chemfab refreshing; there’s a realism, a focus on depressions and market crashes. They’ve subregional, the largest retail centre Its new image, its presentation to the argued that in the case of a Greenfield structures provided shade and shelter the business issues; there are no layers seen it all and they’re very definitely between Newcastle and the Gold Coast surrounds can be described in a word; site, it didn’t matter too much; a large for walking, resting or al-fresco dining; of ownership or management; no fund ‘long-term’; short-term opportunism has boasting a full line Big W, Target, ‘stunning’. The blank wall is gone as is blank cube of a structure surrounded ‘City Square’ had been designed managers, asset managers or trust no place in this corporate culture. Woolworths and Supa IGA supermarkets, the rest of the outdated façade. In its The Food Court with balcony overlooking the main retail strip.