Centre grinds way out of flood chaos
JUST six weeks after the devastating floods swept through the Fairfield Central shopping centre in Idalia, the gutted and refitted shops are starting to reopen their doors.
Cafe Bambini will be the first, at least inside the centre, to reopen today.
Australia Post has operated a temporary outlet, a Woolworths service station began trading last Friday, while the Woolworths supermarket, and a BWS liquor store, will reopen on Saturday.
Cafe Bambini manager Steve Law said the past six weeks had been an emotional roller coaster.
But he hastened to add they were one of the “luckier ones”.
“On the fourth of February when we came into the shop we were devastated. It was very emotional,” Mr Law said.
The cafe business had flood insurance covering 30 per cent of their insured losses, while a $50,000 government-paid small business grant helped recover some of their position.
They re-employed some of the cafe’s 24 staff at a second outlet at Domain Central, while staff unable to work were paid up to 80 per cent of the wages.
“It was our turn to give back,” Mr Law said.
Salvatore Guardala, the chief operating officer of centre part-owners Lancini Property and Development, said the response by Woolworths had been “remarkable”.
While Lancini Property and Development employed more than 100 local tradespeople to strip out and rebuild the lower level of the centre, Woolworths fitted out and restocked the full-line supermarket.
“To fully refurbish the store from top to bottom, that’s a remarkable effort for (Woolworths),” Mr Guardala said.
He said most of the centre’s retailers would open progressively during the next two months, providing work for hundreds of people.
A date for the reopening of the Wesfarmers’ Kmart department store has not been confirmed but the refit of the tenancy is ahead of schedule and a reopening is expected in early May.
A Coles supermarket, almost completed before the floods, will open later this year.
“This is a big step for us and we are excited,” Mr Guardala said. “It brings some normality back to the community.”
The centre has arranged children’s entertainment and community activities for Saturday and Sunday. Mr Guardala said they hoped people would help them celebrate.
While there are suggestions the centre owners have spent tens of millions of dollars rebuilding and were uninsured, Mr Guardala said they were working with their insurers and, like many others, were trying to determine what losses would be covered.