Super-sized centre
Triple the fun for shoppers
NERANG will soon be the home of a swish new shopping centre, including a highly anticipated Kmart, after council approved redevelopment plans.
Station Street’s My Centre will undergo a redevelopment, tripling its size, which division five councillor Peter Young has been personally pushing for.
“We’ve been rigorous in getting good outcomes for this and the response from the community has been really fabulous,” he said. “The current centre is 9000 sqm of retail and the addition will be about 17,000, so tripling in size.
“The information provided shows there will be a Kmart in it and other retail, a food court, kiddies play area and carparking for about 1000 vehicles, a lot of it undercover.
“There will be more opportunity, better facilities, better services because at the moment they have to travel to get these sorts of facilities so I’m really pleased that this is coming to our town.”
Extending to Gilston Road just off the Pacific Motorway, the block of land has had a turbulent past, with development plans in place for a decade.
While this development isn’t as large as the one proposed back in 2008, Cr Young said it’s still a massive win for the Nerang/Gilston area.
“The first approval was in 2008 for a much larger shopping centre to include cinemas, and an additional 50,000 sqm of retail,” Cr Young said.
“There was a lot of community development in those plans, it was very well received and ultimately it was approved.
“That developer had to sell the land because of the GFC.
“The new owner has been sitting on his hands for a few years and last year he came in with plans which we didn’t like much, it was very much just a box and we wanted to incorporate some of the elements the community had sought back in 2008.
“It stems from the earlier approval and a much smaller expansion.”
The centre will also be unique in that it is surrounded by lush bushland and faces the Nerang River, which will become a feature of the final design.
“Along the river edge will be a dedicated 60m wide buffer of natural vegetation,” Cr Tozer said.
“So there will be retail level vantage points overlooking the parklands and river. People will be able to take food, eat and look over the view.
“It’s quite a heavily vegetated block and ultimately there will be pathways that connect shopping to existing tracks. Overall it’s going to be a nice outcome.”