# Karingal Hub Shopping Centre

Karingal Hub Shopping Centre (colloquially known as "Karingal Hub," or "The Hub,") as well as its "Town Square" is a super-regional shopping centre in Frankston, Victoria, Australia, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Melbourne CBD. The complex has a combined gross leasable area of 53,000 m$^2$ (570,000 sq ft), 2,750 parking spaces and 200+ stores. It was acquired by ISPT, or the Industry Superannuation Property Trust in July, 2013 and has been owned by other large corporations in the past such as Vicinity Centres, which owns its major competitor Bayside. It has the only Big W in and around the peninsula and has a multitude of popular shops and includes a renovated and tall playground within its Town Square as well as an additional smaller playground in the south of the building, close to the retailer aforementioned.

## Town Square

The Town Square is a regional town square for the locality of Karingal in Frankston, Victoria, located in and managed by Karingal Hub on Karingal Drive. It's predecessor was constructed in 2005 under the name of 'Star Zone Karingal' which was subsequently renovated in 2022 and changed its name to the "Town Square" of Karingal. It features a multitude of shops and experiences such as the 12 screen Village Cinemas multiplex with 3 Gold Class facilities and 1 former state-of-the-art VMax auditorium, the Goodlife Health Gym as well as restaurants/fast-food stores like Grill'd, Schnitz, Rashays, San Churro and more. It's predecessor of Star Zone Karingal was the first of the range of precincts that used the terminology of "Star Zone," under the Village Cinemas enterprise, but only had a handful of restaurants even if it had expansive parking. The former parking would turn into either shops or become part of an expansive multi-level car park during the 2021 redevelopment of Karingal Hub (see § History and Developments).

## History & Developments
### Early Years

Karingal Hub was opened in 1978 under the name "Centro Karingal" named after the original centres owners Centro Properties Group (Now Vicinity Centres after a Novion merger), opening with 120 stores, including the two superstores of Big W and Safeway. Karingal Hub would build a third space of a mall with space for another superstore, but Safeway used it instead to keep a monopoly on the locality.

### Growth

In 2005 The new Village Cinemas (see § Town Square) as well as Karingal's new entertainment and wellbeing multiplex opened to compete with the other Frankston shopping centre Bayside Shopping Centre's plan to open an entertainment complex with a multi-screen cinema, being completed a year after Karingal's Star Zone. The multiplex in Karingal was disconnected from the main centre but shared the same management and parking and could be traversed to and back safely. In 2006, redevelopment of the main shopping centre included the refurbishment of the inner and outer facades as well as an extension of the north west portion where the modern Best and Less and River stores are currently located as well as its new food court and open space area (in 2021 now demolished), adding up to a 12,500 square meter gross lettable area addition to the property.

### Acquisition and redesignation

In July, 2013, Karingal Hub was acquired by ISPT (the Industry Superannuation Property Trust) from Federation Centres (Centro's name before the Novion merger) for $115 million. In the same month, all Safeways in the centre were renamed to Woolworths following the Woolworth Group 1985 acquisition of Safeway Pty Ltd and it's decision to unify the branding.

### 2021 and onwards

In 2021, Karingal Hub unveiled a $160 million renovation and extension of its premises which included 12,000m$^{2}$ of new shopping space added on onto the existing infrastructure in three stages and connected the two separate spaces of the main shopping mall and entertainment space, with ideas first springing up about the plan in at least April 2013.

#### Stage 1

The first stage introduced Karingal Hub's new 'Fresh Food Precinct' which featured more than 28 fresh food and specialty retailers, including a new marketplace, Coles, Aldi, a refurbished Woolworths as well as additional stores such as Baker's Delight, Poultry Plus, Roll'd, Walker's Doughnuts, and more. It included a huge open space in the heart of such area for specialty kiosks and events.

#### Stage 2

The second stage opened more than 40 stores that were featured in its 'Fashion and Lifestyle Precinct' which includes places like Cotton On, Factorie, and more. This stage can be regarded as a refurbishment and overhaul of the former building as no new the area of the store was not actually expanded. The construction included the shutdown of the southern Woolworths store in the centre, as it's existence is now irrelevant, being divided and turned into a Cotton On Megastore, Glue and Tk Maxx. This stage also introduced the new Food Court now located near Big W and Tk Maxx. The previous food court in addition to its open space area was completely demolished, reconstructed and became a part of the fashion precinct. There has been controversy due to this as some retailers such as McDonalds has not returned to Karingal Hub after this renovation for unknown reasons, but some claim it is due to another franchisee of McDonalds being a couple blocks down the street.

#### Stage 3

The third and final stage introduced the § Town Square which was an overhaul to the former "Star Zone Karingal" and includes the existing Village Cinemas in addition to a range of dining experiences, communal gathering and play areas. Additionally there is now an escalator and lift connecting it vitally to the main area of the Karingal stores through the Fresh Food Precinct.

## Retailers

Karingal Hub has a wide variety of supermarkets, discount department stores and specialty stores as well as a fantastic 12 screen theater and gym.
Major retailers include Coles, Woolworths, Big W, Aldi, Hungry Jack's, Village Cinemas, TK Maxx & Best & Less.
As well as some minor retailers such as Schnitz, The Reject Shop, Liquorland, 7-Eleven, Sushi Sushi, Hungry Jack's, ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Goodlife Health Club, Rashays & Grill'd.

## Accessibility and Location

Karingal Hub is located in the locality of Karingal, a medium sized district in Frankston, Victoria. It is located on 330 Cranbourne Road, beside the Eastlink freeway and adjacent to a Dan Murphys and Mitre 10, not directly correlated with the centre as many presume. The shopping centre has 3 levels of car parking including a new rooftop parking and two floors of shopping (when including the § Town Square, with disabled parking bays and bicycle racks at all major entrances, and escalators / lifts when necessary.
The store can be accessed via bus, train, taxi, uber, car, walking, biking, and more.
In addition to these and the existing Frankston Station which can be used to travel to the centre by bus, Karingal Hub may get a new nearby due to the "Stony Point Line Duplication" proposed by the Frankston City Council.

## Competition

Karingal Hub has two main local shopping centre competitors, Bayside Shopping Centre and the Frankston Power Centre, both located less than 5 kilometres from Karingal Hub. Frankston Power Centre is primarily a hard goods mall, but some product categories overlap.

## Gallery

* Construction of Coles and Aldi precinct in Karingal Hub
* Back view of Karingal Hub's 'Happy Camp' Playground
* Outside view of completed Coles and Aldi precinct in Karingal Hub
* Pylon electronic sign of Karingal Hub
* Karingal Hub sign outside the new "Town Square"