Westfield Warringah Mall

Westfield Warringah Mall

Entry to Westfield Warringah Mall from carpark
Location	Brookvale, New South Wales
Coordinates	33°46′04″S 151°15′58″E / 33.767720°S 151.265991°E / -33.767720; 151.265991Coordinates: 33°46′04″S 151°15′58″E / 33.767720°S 151.265991°E / -33.767720; 151.265991
Opening date	4 April 1963
Management	Scentre Group
Owner	Scentre Group
No. of stores and services	388
No. of anchor tenants	10
Total retail floor area	131,938 m2 (1,420,169 sq ft)
No. of floors	3
Parking	4,650 spaces
Website	westfield.com.au/warringahmall/

"Pacific Family" by Victor Cusack (1988), at the centre court

Another fountain at Westfield Warringah Mall

Westfield Warringah Mall (previously known as Warringah Mall) is a large indoor/outdoor shopping centre in the suburb of Brookvale in the Northern Beaches region of Sydney.^[1]

Transport

Westfield Warringah Mall has bus connections to the Sydney CBD, Chatswood and the Northerns Beaches including Manly, Dee Why, Warriewood and Mona Vale, as well as local surrounding suburbs. It is served by Sydney buses, Forest Coach Lines and B-Line. 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.^[2] 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 (now LJ Hooker). Warringah Mall contained around with around 50 stores, including H. G. Palmer (closed 1965), Nock & Kirby, Franklins, Woolworths and David Jones.^[3][4] 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. (Angelo D'Angelo) and Goose (James Lugton), meet Judy (Nicole Kidman) who was working as a trolley collector. In the mid-1980s, a Target store was opened along with 20 speciality 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.^[5]

Warringah Mall was included in the sale of Hammerson's Australian property portfolio to AMP Capital in 1994.^[6][7] 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.^[8] 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.^[9] In July 2014, as part of a restructure of the Westfield Group, it came under the control of the Scentre Group.^[10]

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.^[11]

Stage 2 of the redevelopment was completed in November 2016. Myer was temporarily closed for refurbishment and was opened by Australian model Jennifer Hawkins.^[12]

Stage 2 consists of:

• A brand new refurbished Myer
• A new two level parallel mall linking Myer and the existing centre
• New refurbished centre court
• 70 new stores (including 50 fashion stores including H&M and Sephora)

Tenants

Westfield Warringah Mall has 131,938m² 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 and Hoyts Cinema.

Incidents

• On 23 June 2015, a security guard was almost set on fire by a man who was high on ice. The security guard found the man slumped over on the stairs, unresponsive and with his eyes closed.^[13]
• On 21 April 2016, a section of the centre was evacuated following reports of a possible bomb threat at the construction site. Access to a small parking area has been restricted and the construction site has been evacuated from the area at the north of the site, but shoppers were not affected.^[14][15]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Westfield Warringah Mall.