PACIFIC FAIR FALL AND RISE
Centre’s fortunes went through plenty of ups and downs in the 1990s and 2000s.
PACIFIC Fair’s opening in mid -1977 dramatically up-ended the Gold Coast’s retail sector and started a shopping arms race for superiority that continues today.
Opening the same year as Star Wars’ release in cinemas, the complex spent the 1970s and 1980s battling it out with Sundale and Scarborough Fair to win over customers and shoppers.
But the dawn of the 1990s brought competition change, with Sundale closing, the opening of the newly expanded Australia Fair and plans unveiled for Robina Town Centre and Harbour Town.
During the late 1980s, Pacific Fair’s owners AMP rapidly moved to expand their complex again to be competitive in the 1990s.
The $100m new-look centre was to include more space for Myer and Coles, a third department store, a second supermarket and 100 more specialty shops.
A bridge across Little Tallebudgera Creek would also be added to connect Pacific Fair and the Gold Coast Highway.
AMP property manager Brian Bubbers told the media the expansions were designed to meet the needs of the growing Gold Coast population and the tourism boom.
Half those who visited Pacific Fair were locals, the rest tourists, he told the Bulletin in 1987.
“The centre has not been upgraded for 10 years and, by today’s standards, is not covering all the things a customer wants,” Mr Bubbers said.
By 1987 more than 13 million people were visiting Pacific Fair each year. Retail sales were in excess of $180m.
With the revamp under way, a further $160m was announced in 1989 to expand the centre by 87,500sq m.
By that year Pacific Fair was turning over $215m annually and AMP said the centre would have a brand-new look for the 1990s, a “pink palace”.
The project was expected to be completed in 1992 and would be marketed as “Australia’s shopping resort’’.
The first stage, known as The Village, opened in 1990. The old teepees and kiosks in the heart of the centre were replaced by new shops.
They included an Everything Australian souvenir shop and a Devonshire tea shop called Danny’s By The Billabong.
By 1992, a pink facade was erected and the new Myer store was open.
It was marketed as having a central atrium and waterfall, a large skylight and glass-backed lifts which allowed locals to look out over the coastal strip.
“With its own bridge across the canal from the highway and a pastel pink facade, the new Myer is higher on bold attraction than just about any other top shop,” a report on opening day said.
“Inside, the place is a gawkers’ paradise and they’ve been arriving in bus loads to drink in the pink-marble ambience.
“The central atrium, zooming up four levels, is lit by special daylight spots that kid you into thinking you’re actually copping a suntan while you shop.”
As the Gold Coast struggled against the early 1990s recession, Pacific Fair proved to be a major exception for employers, with thousands of people taking up new positions in the shops while the nearby Oasis struggled to fill its shops.
It was another five years before tinsel town came to Pacific Fair in the form of one of the world’s biggest celebrities and an out-of-this-world release.
By 1997 Mcdonnell and East was gone and in its place stood long-time anchor stores Toys R Us and Target. The centre’s state-of-the-art cinema opened in early 1997 and was the Gold Coast’s largest, having 12 theatres and screening the special edition re-release of Star Wars, the same film which topped the box office the year Pacific Fair opened. More than 3000 people attended the cinema on its opening day.
Three months later, Hollywood superstar George Clooney spent a day at Pacific Fair and opened its Warner Bros shop, attending the premiere of the infamous box office bomb Batman and Robin.
Department store Daimaru arrived in 1998 after a $40m expansion of the centre but, despite signing a lease until 2024, it lasted just four years.
It closed its doors after its Japanese owners exited the Australia market.
By the late 2000s, the pink facade had faded and AMP planned a major revamp which stalled in the face of the global financial crisis. Much of the complex’s lustre was stolen in 2009 when Robina Town Centre was dramatically expanded, securing a range of bigname tenants and an even larger cinema.
As the years passed, it became clear that Pacific Fair needed its own revamp. Finally, more than $650m was spent between 2014-16 to abandon the pink palace look and redevelop Pacific Fair to become a modern, 21st century centre.
Despite the Covid downturn, the complex remains popular with patrons and tourists today.