Townsville residents are celebrating the ‘coming of age’ of their town’s retail scene with a massive redevelopment of the Willows Shopping Centre. 

Twenty-first Century retailing has come to Townsville with the long-awaited redevelopment of the Willows Shopping Centre.

Built in 1985 and upgraded in 1994, owner and manager of Willows, DEXUS Property Group, says the centre was well overdue for a makeover. The Northern Queensland town has undergone a ‘population explosion’, rendering the former 25,000sqm centre inadequate for the needs one of Australia’s fastest growing regions.

Nicole Hickling, asset development manager, said the $83 million redevelopment of Willows had changed the face of retail in Townsville.

The completed centre is now the largest in the city at 38,000sqm and houses 125 stores, including Coles, Woolworths, Target, Big W, Best & Less and JB Hi-Fi. Specialty tenants include Lorna Jane, QBD Books, Robins Kitchen, and Lowes, among others.

And with Townsville tipped to continue its massive growth, DEXUS has made sure locals will never be starved for choice again, with capacity for further expansion of the centre to 85,000sqm.

"A lot of the population growth in the area has been in the western region, which is where Willows is, and also where 69 per cent of growth is expected to come from in the next 20 years. Willows will shortly be sitting in the urban centre of Townsville with the continued growth, so the redevelopment took a long term view - this is just the first stage of our long term plan for Townsville," Hickling said.

Prior to construction, DEXUS undertook extensive community consultation to ascertain exactly what the people of Townsville required. The overwhelming answer was more variety.


 

 

 

"This is an area with a lot of young families and people told us they wanted to see increased variety, with some larger players and an expanded youth fashion offer. So that’s what we did."

While the centre underwent a complete redevelopment and refurbishment lasting 15 months, the main points of transformation were the addition of more youth fashion brands, a Best & Less store, a fresh food precinct and an overhaul of amenities. Some important environmental measures were also introduced.

"Townsville residents were very much aware that we were in a major growth corridor and hadn’t been refurbished or extended. There was previously only one Big W in Townsville, so we added a new, larger one, and there were no other centres in the area that had established a great fresh food precinct.

"We added a butcher, seafood outlet, and bakery and Woolworths also did a refresh to boost the offer.

"Sitting in an area with such large property development also required that we expand our homewares."

The centre now houses the largest food court, Big W and car park in Townsville.

Visitors to Willows Shopping Centre will also enjoy use of brand new toilets and facilities, including the Australian Breast Feeding Association five star accredited parents room.

"We demolished all our existing toilets and most importantly introduced the new parents room to cater for the large number of young families in the area."

The parents room is larger and features private feeding rooms and a play area for toddlers to occupy themselves while mum is changing or feeding babies.

The reopening of Willows in October saw 160,000 people (equivalent to the entire population of Townsville) walk through the doors in its first three days of trade.

"We have had outstanding support from the community and that has been the highlight. We did the research and to know that we’ve delivered on what they require is really quite exciting for us."

 

 

Environmentally, Willows has introduced water recycling for amenities, slow flow controls on bathroom taps, and in the construction phase, recycled old food court furniture by donating it to local community groups.

Part of the redevelopment also took in a former tennis court, which saw the court lights donated to another in the area.

Social responsibilities were not forgotten with the addition of staff bike amenities and showers as well as a dedicated, covered disabled drop-off zone.

"One of the most important things about Townsville is that it has a strong, diverse economy and it’s held up very well in the economic crisis," Hickling told Inside Retailing Magazine.

"Our redevelopment was able to provide strong employment opportunities over that time. We generated around 300 construction jobs and about 400 permanent jobs.

"Around the country we saw several developments put on hold, but DEXUS wanted to demonstrate our long term commitment to Townsville, and we made the call to proceed with the development, as did the retailers.

"Nothing has been overlooked in this upgrade - we’ve covered everything from new signage, painting, paving landscaping, new doors, new car park pylon signage - we didn’t forget the existing centre."

Michael Lane, head of retail investments at DEXUS, said one of the successes of the company has been its ability to formulate developments that deliver what the community wants.

"We’ve worked very hard to get involved with the community of Townsville, and we’ve got a very strong track record in regional towns."

DEXUS currently has 21 centres under management around Australia, 13 solely managed by DEXUS, with eight jointly managed with Westfield and AMP.

 

This feature first appeared in Inside Retailing Magazine.Click here to subscribe.