3 September 2013

Canberra Centre Below completion time?

| Here_and_Now
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Have any Rioters (staff, guest or otherwise) heard anything about when the Canberra Centre’s reconstruction of their Food Court/lower level is due for completion other than ‘late 2013’? (Though that’s a broad window, so they’re still on track.)

Anything? Investigative journalism, low-level publicity or some other source?

Thanks.

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Reprobate said :

c_c™ said :

qbninthecity said :

I didn’t realise that Dymocks current residence was only a temporary move. Seems odd that they are moving down to lower level, I would’ve thought the current location was a much better option. But the again, who really shops at Dymocks? They are too expensive

They moved from the old Venture wing of the centre down to there…

I remember it as the Waltons wing!

Yes, indeed it was. A little before my time, by then Alan Bond had sold the remaining Waltons stores to Venture (crippling the latter under the debt of the acquisition), finishing what started a while before in Victoria selling the stores in that state to Myer and the sale of their insurance subsidiary.

Reprobate said :

They moved from the old Venture wing of the centre down to there…

I remember it as the Waltons wing!

Or more to the point the Monaro Mall.

PS they have been advertising the opening of Priceline in the newly refubished lower food court on radio today. Thursday is the day.

c_c™ said :

qbninthecity said :

I didn’t realise that Dymocks current residence was only a temporary move. Seems odd that they are moving down to lower level, I would’ve thought the current location was a much better option. But the again, who really shops at Dymocks? They are too expensive

They moved from the old Venture wing of the centre down to there…

I remember it as the Waltons wing!

JC said :

Just to clarify in case anyone goes to Westfield Sydney there are actually two food courts. The one under Myer is the normal run of the mill food court, the one in the Centrepoint tower base building is the ‘upmarket’ one. Think it is on level 3 or 4.

But do agree not bad, but you are paying for that of course.

I absolutely love visiting Canberra and finding out what amazingly useful, interesting and vital things are being discussed here.

In other, far less important, news, who wants to know how to do a crackled pork roast in the camp oven?

C-C – yeah, Westfield, one of the most successful shopping mall developers in the world, should be guided by you. You know better.

I don’t particularly care for a lot of Westfield’s developments, so I don’t patronise them. But here’s a tip – until you are prepared to put up your own money to fund alternatives, your opinions are worthless.

qbninthecity said :

I didn’t realise that Dymocks current residence was only a temporary move. Seems odd that they are moving down to lower level, I would’ve thought the current location was a much better option. But the again, who really shops at Dymocks? They are too expensive

They moved from the old Venture wing of the centre down to there, which is absolutely bizarre in the first place because they traded a store with some foot traffic, in for one with no foot traffic at the best of times, much less since they put the building works in for DJs to the left. Ultimately moving down to the new food court makes good sense, but their previous location is vacant still so I don’t get the need for an interim move.

dtc said :

Westfield Sydney city is pretty good. Not a mcD/KFC/Pizza Hut in sight. A bit more exxy though

haha, oh well Westfield will appreciate at least one person likes what they’re doing, because the customers and the tenants don’t. Firstly Westfield Sydney just completed those huge renovations not too long ago, and yet walking around the place I was struck by how claustrophobic it was, and lacking in architectural vision. Very stuffy and stale. Also with the exception of the line for Centrepoint Tower, there was very little bussle inside on a work day, it made any of Canberra’s shopping centres look crowded by comparison. (Ironic since other shopping and food precincts like the two level one in the AMP building were overflowing with people).

As for the food shops, they still have Maccas, KFC and all the regular chains on Level 1, but they added the food precinct on Level 5 (and I think it’s stretches on to Level 6). The problem of course is design again, they put those food outlets up top away from most of the traffic and charged them massive rents, so many of them have been complaining and some have shut down. I never bothered to find my way up there since there’s about 4 or 5 food course at ground or first floor level in the vicinity anyway. Which is a shame since they apparently have (or had) some good stuff on offer. But it seems the imbeciles in Westfield HQ never bothered to think about traffic flow, they just thought they’d build it and people will come, either by wandering around the labyrinth inside the centre, or by following the direct elevator from an obscure, poorly marked single door at street level.

dtc said :

Westfield Sydney city is pretty good. Not a mcD/KFC/Pizza Hut in sight. A bit more exxy though

Singpore and HK have some great shopping centre food courts. But of course in Asia they generally do cheap food much better than us.

Just to clarify in case anyone goes to Westfield Sydney there are actually two food courts. The one under Myer is the normal run of the mill food court, the one in the Centrepoint tower base building is the ‘upmarket’ one. Think it is on level 3 or 4.

But do agree not bad, but you are paying for that of course.

Madam Cholet said :

Will be interesting to see what they come up with for the food court. Never seen a good one, although that may be more courtesy of the crap outlets as opposed to the design.

Westfield Sydney city is pretty good. Not a mcD/KFC/Pizza Hut in sight. A bit more exxy though

Singpore and HK have some great shopping centre food courts. But of course in Asia they generally do cheap food much better than us.

qbninthecity8:06 am 04 Sep 13

nsn said :

qbninthecity said :

Dymocks has already relocated downstairs to where the sportsmans warehouse used to be (near Lincraft & OPSM)

Yes, but that’s only a temporary store. bd84’s point was that Dymocks will be moving into the lower ground floor, near the food court, when that area is opened again. They had to vacate their store on level 1, near Pumpkin Patch, to make way for a new entrance to DJs.

I didn’t realise that Dymocks current residence was only a temporary move. Seems odd that they are moving down to lower level, I would’ve thought the current location was a much better option. But the again, who really shops at Dymocks? They are too expensive

nsn said :

qbninthecity said :

Dymocks has already relocated downstairs to where the sportsmans warehouse used to be (near Lincraft & OPSM)

Yes, but that’s only a temporary store. bd84’s point was that Dymocks will be moving into the lower ground floor, near the food court, when that area is opened again. They had to vacate their store on level 1, near Pumpkin Patch, to make way for a new entrance to DJs.

Yes, I did mean that! I don’t know why they would want to put a new DJs entrance there.. It’s not exactly a high traffic area. Maybe trying to boost it I guess.

Madam Cholet2:06 pm 03 Sep 13

Will be interesting to see what they come up with for the food court. Never seen a good one, although that may be more courtesy of the crap outlets as opposed to the design.

qbninthecity said :

Dymocks has already relocated downstairs to where the sportsmans warehouse used to be (near Lincraft & OPSM)

Yes, but that’s only a temporary store. bd84’s point was that Dymocks will be moving into the lower ground floor, near the food court, when that area is opened again. They had to vacate their store on level 1, near Pumpkin Patch, to make way for a new entrance to DJs.

What is with Dymocks? Are bookshops cheap to refit? They used to be near Garema, then upstairs Canberra Centre, now into the old Sportsman’s Warehouse – and another move downstairs??

qbninthecity12:47 pm 03 Sep 13

The lady I spoke to in David Jones on the weekend told me that the reno’s are at least a month behind schedule. Although that only applies for DJ’s, not the snake pit. Dymocks has already relocated downstairs to where the sportsmans warehouse used to be (near Lincraft & OPSM)

Dymocks posted a while ago on its facebook that it will end up down stairs when it’s complete, which was expected in late November. I doubt they will let it finish much later than that because of the Christmas rush.. Suspect that all store refurbishments and openings will be complete by then too. Business mustn’t be that good there at the moment judging by the significant number of empty shops..

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