Westfield Doncaster - History

History

Westfield Doncaster officially opened on 30 September 1969. It was Westfield's first entry to Victoria. one of the original tenants was "David East Jeweller" and "Diamond in Ice" was one of the Shopping Town Promotions.The original $12-million centre consisted of the four storey Myer building at the north end, two levels of shops running along the west side to the, then white, eight-storey office tower. On the east side the two layers of shops merged into one layer, then finished at a Coles New World supermarket. The first Coles store was where Esprit is, and Waltons department store was where the first food court later opened but closed due to the 2007–08 upgrade.

In 1979 the centre was extended south with two single-storey rows of shops, Kmart, Coles and Village Twin Cinemas. A major redevelopment completed in 1993 saw the centre expand further. A second level of shops was added to the south end including Franklins and a fresh food court above Coles and Kmart. Outside, the colours were a jarring Californian design and local protests saw Westfield alter the image in line with local tastes. However, as the 21st century arrived, time had dulled the looks of the centre following redevelopments of other Westfield centres such as Southland, Fountain Gate and even Sydney's Bondi Junction.

The latest revitalisation, which started in January 2007, after years of applying for a permit, saw the centre undergo a full makeover. It involved an overall modernisation of the centre, renovated Coles and Safeway supermarkets plus a Fresh Food market (Colonial Fresh Markets), new Big-W and Target (replacing K-Mart), refurbished Myer, new David Jones, a Borders store, many new mini majors such as JB Hi-Fi, Dick Smith Electronics, a larger 9 screen Village Cinemas, dubbed "Our World's Best Cinema" by Village, a black label Fitness First Gym which replaced the old Donacster library, now located in Precinct One, a new food court known as the Drum located on the corner of Williamsons and Doncaster Roads which has sweeping views of Melbourne, new restaurants on the rooftop level, a new bus interchange and over 1500 extra parking spaces, mostly undercover, in a new 6 level parking lot with an LED system indicating free spaces. This unfortunately for Doncaster residents showed the start of paid parking, but at a very low price (first 3 hours free). The number of stores was doubled to 400, which makes it the 5th biggest shopping centre in Australia and 3rd biggest in Victoria in terms of stores. It also made the centre the 10th biggest shopping centre in Australia and 4th biggest in Victoria according to gross lettable area. It was finished on 16 October 2008.