Chadstone Mall $500 million expansion wins Victorian government planning approval

Victorian Planning Minister Matthew Guy has approved a $500 million expansion of Chadstone Shopping Centre, the biggest shopping centre in Australia and the southern hemisphere.

This follows the City of Stonnington granting approval to the redevelopment plans in August this year, after the support of an independent planning panel in July.

The expansion plans include the building of twin 14-storey buildings comprising offices and a hotel at the southern end of the mall, two floors of international retailers, refurbishments of the cinemas and food precincts, and the addition of 1,400 new car-parking spaces.

There are also Victorian goverment discussions underway for a new $2 billion train line connecting the Glen Waverley and Dandenong railway lines that would stop at Chadstone Shopping Centre with traffic congestion one of the major issues identified by the independent planning panel.

The mall was last redeveloped in 2007 to give it the title of biggest in the southern hemisphere at a cost of $100 million.

Chadstone Mall dates back to the 1960s and is a super-regional shopping centre owned by Colonial First State Global Asset Management, with 50% owned by its listed property trust Colonial First State Retail Property Trust (CFS) since 1994.

CFS’s half-share is valued at $1.6 billion and covering 156,000 square metres of gross lettable retail space along with 20,000 square metres office space.

It provides 156,000 square metres of gross lettable retail space along with 20,000 square metres of office space.

Major tenants are Myer (12.4% of space leased), David Jones (9.5%), Hoyts and Target.

In total the 518 tenants generate sales in excess of $1.3 billion