Hopes fade for new Woolworths centre
WOOLWORTHS appears to be losing the race to build a new shopping centre on the northern beaches of Cairns.
Cairns Regional Council will today decide on the grocery giant’s bid to build a 4350sq m retail centre on the corner of Trinity Beach Rd and the Captain Cook Highway.
It is unlikely to be the decision Woolworths’ property division Fabcot wants.
A report before the council recommends preliminary approval should only kick in if another new shopping centre development at Smithfield does not start construction within four years, or the nearby population hits a critical mass, not expected until 2030.
The frontrunners in the race are Sam and Paul Pellegrino, whose Trinity Park Investment company recently won a five-year legal battle with Smithfield Shopping Centre owner Dexus to turn their own Smithfield property into a competing retail complex.
The duo have felled a former palm tree plantation on the Captain Cook Highway site to make way for a 4200sq m centre to be called Smithfield Hub. However, construction has not started.
The Cairns Post understands Woolworths does not own the property it plans to develop into the Trinity Beach Shopping Centre.
It holds a purchase option over the land conditional on gaining development approval.
The council report says the development will undermine Smithfield Hub’s ability to trade successfully.
“It has also been established through a peer-review assessment that there is an insufficient market to support two major supermarkets at both sites,” the report continues.
“The supermarkets would serve a largely overlapping trade area and cause undue impacts upon each other and the surrounding retail network.”
The proposal received 583 mostly negative submissions during the community consultation phase.
The report says some elements should gain immediate approval – a service station, restaurant and child care centre – but they are not likely to proceed without the shopping centre as an anchor.
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