Eastland Shopping Centre

Stage 4 Expansion

In early 2001, after years of rumors and consumer desire for cinemas in Ringwood, QIC announced plans for a stage 4 expansion. Key to this expansion was a Hoyts 12 screen cinema complex (down from the originally planned 14), a few restaurants (including a Pancake Parlour), a Big-W store, and a 2nd major supermarket, which at the time was scheduled to be a Bilo Mega Fresh store (but only a regular Bilo store was built), and an additional 50 specialty stores, increasing the centre's retail size by approximately 25,000 square metres.

Big-W and Bilo opened in late October 2002, along with a handful of the 50 specialty stores. The cinemas opened on 26 December 2002.

Eastland Expansion 2015-2016 (Stage 5)

Expansion rumors persisted for years, with initial plans including a large 3-level expansion, connecting the Hoyts end with Maroondah Highway, providing a new entrance to the 3rd level of Myer, and culminating in an outdoor alfresco dining and nightlife area, similar to Knox Ozone. Also included in the plans were an open town centre area and a new public library and office and hotel towers. This development was originally due to get underway in late 2009, but stalled due to the Global Financial Crisis until 2013. Enabling works commenced in 2012 ^[1] allowing for changes to be made to the Eastern Multilevel carpark; the entry ramp to the 3rd level of the carpark was moved, and Kmart Tyre and Auto was relocated to the North-Western carpark off Ringwood Street. This work was considered necessary before any redevelopment could commence.^[2]

QIC publicly unveiled the $665 million Stage 5 redevelopment on 28 October 2013. The centre has been expanded by approximately 50% in retail space, from ~80,000sqm to 131,000sqm, making it one of the largest shopping centres in Australia, and almost identical in size to nearby Westfield Doncaster.

The new expansion includes a new Target discount department store and a David Jones department store. The new David Jones store will be the latest of the retailer's "Next Generation Store" concepts - featuring increased space for fashion and cosmetics, with less space for homewares and no space for electronics.^[3]

The expansion spans 2 levels for the most part, creating new south and east malls, with an outdoor alfresco dining and entertainment area surrounding the new Ringwood Town Centre and public library space on the third/ground level.^[4] The expansion has a focus (after customer feedback on the existing mix) on creating more dining and entertainment options for the people of Ringwood, as well as introducing more high-end fashion options into the centre. QIC appointed Seventh Wave as Creative Directors for Stage 5 to oversee the expansion. The Realm Library, Town Square, David Jones and the Shard were designed by ACME, the Central Mall refurbishment and link malls were designed by Universal Design Studios and the East Mall was designed by Softroom. The redevelopment completed in 2 stages, the first stage opened on 29 October 2015 and the second stage opened on 5 May 2016.

QIC also owns the adjacent Ringwood Market site - which was demolished at the end of 2009 to make way for a new retail/commercial development - and past plans for a westward expansion of 3 separate 5 storey buildings, including office space, underground parking, and boutique shops/dining along with the space for a 12,000 square metre retail store (Costco, IKEA and Masters Home Improvement were all rumoured to be vying for the space), linked to Eastland were suggested. Since, then, Melbourne's second Costco Australia store was rumoured and then confirmed, with construction commencing in August, 2012. The 14,500sqm store was opened on 20 November 2013.^[5]