Food Gallery Adds to Vicinity’s Retail Offering at The Glen

Shopping centre owner Vicinity Centres has launched The Food Gallery as part of the second stage of their $490 million redevelopment of The Glen mall in Glen Waverley, Victoria.

Like a number of mall owners Vicinity has been active in seeking to upgrade the shopping experience in an age of retail disruption in order to create a greater destination experience.

Food retailing is seen as more internet proof than other retail sectors with shopping centre landlords eager to alter their mix of tenancies to include more food and dining retailers.

Set against a backdrop of towering glass windows with unobstructed views to the Dandenong Ranges and Yarra Valley, this latest stage, delivered by Probuild, consists of 23 tenancies and new amenities.

Related reading: Food Retail Offsets Department Store Slump for Scentre

Last year, Vicinity sold the air rights to Jeff Xu’s Golden Age Group to develop 500 apartments above The Glen, which will develop significant additional foot traffic and help put it at the centre of the local community.

The permit at time of sale allowed for the development of three towers of 18, 10 and 12-storeys on a podium that will be constructed at the end of the mall.

Probuild will deliver all five stages of The Glen’s redevelopment while the centre continues to trade. Stage three, the updated fashion and lifestyle precinct, is set to open in late 2018.

At project completion in early 2020, The Glen will be expanded to approximately 78,000sq m of gross lettable area.

Related reading: Queen Victoria Market Plans in Disarray After Heritage Refusal

Frasers Property has announced plans to regenerate the Burwood Brickworks in Melbourne’s east into a shopping mall that focuses on customer experience rather than the simple “need to shop”.

They are looking to build the world’s most sustainable shopping centre inclusive of a 2000 square metre rooftop urban farm. They will utilise the “The Living Building Challenge” in order to deliver 20 per cent of the site area as urban agriculture.

According to the latest ABS retail trade figures, Australian retail sales for January fell well short of expectations – rising by a sluggish 0.1 per cent.

After posting a 0.5 per cent fall in December, sales edged up in January but failed to meet forecasts of a 0.4 per cent rebound.

The disappointing result was due to substantial falls in clothing and footwear retail and department stores, with rises in food and beverage spending and household goods retailing offsetting a larger overall slump.