Chatswood Shopping Centre

## Chatswood Chase Sydney

**Chatswood Chase Sydney** (previously known as **Chatswood Chase**) is a shopping centre in the suburb of Chatswood on the Lower North Shore of Sydney.

### Transport

The Metro North West, North Shore and Northern lines offer frequent services to Chatswood station which is a short walk from the centre.

Westfield Chatswood has bus connections to Sydney CBD, North Shore and Northern Sydney, as well as surrounding suburbs. It is served by State Transit services with bus stops on Victoria Avenue and Archer Street.

Chatswood Chase Sydney also has multi level car parks with 2,434 spaces.

### History

In the early 1970s, Willoughby Council developed the 'Chatswood Plan' which marked Chatswood as the centre of future community infrastructure and emphasised the council's ongoing commitment to retail development. It had hopes that it would ensure the town centre's continuing importance as a regional retail centre. David Jones submitted a proposal to build a shopping centre that would contain two department stores David Jones and Myer. on a site in Archer Street. In 1975 the site in Archer Street was given an 'Interim Development Order'. David Jones's rival Grace Bros had also proposed to build a shopping centre containing a supermarket and another department store adjacent to its existing store which opened in 1961 on Victoria Avenue. In 1978 the David Jones proposal was approved after disputes between Grace Bros and the State Government.

Pre-development work on Chatswood Chase had begun in 1981 before Grace Bros dropped its final legal challenge. The works involved demolition of residential cottages and the church that stood on the site which was later reconstructed on an adjacent block of land. Sections of Neridah Street and Mills Lane were permanently closed and incorporated into the site and an open natural watercourse piped and diverted. The centre was completed in 14 months.

Chatswood Chase officially opened on 23 March 1983 by and was the first large scale shopping centre after the opening of Wallace Way and Lemon Grove in the 1980s. The centre contained a Coles New World supermarket, Kmart, David Jones and it was the home to the only Myer store in NSW until the early 1990s then briefly became Grace Bros before closing altogether. This made Chatswood the only suburb in Sydney to have two Grace Bros. stores around this time. The space vacated by Grace Bros became a food court and speciality stores. In 2003, Chatswood Chase was purchased by Centro (now Vicinity Centres).

In 2007, Vicinity Centres proceeded with a large and extensive redevelopment, growing the centre's gross lettable area by approximately 10,300 m2. Total cost was around $185 million.

The Trust previously reported the acquisition of an adjoining office building at 19 Havilah Street in Chatswood and has since also secured an option to purchase the access lane to Chatswood Chase off Malvern Avenue to facilitate the proposed redevelopment.

This involved relocating Coles supermarket into a larger retail area, undertaking a major extension to the lower ground retail space, the introduction of a new food court, the addition of approximately 130 new car parking spaces and an upgrade to the Victoria Avenue entrance. Work on the expansion concluded in 2010 and the centre was renamed to Chatswood Chase Sydney.

Apple opened its second retail store in Australia on 9 August 2008.

In August 2012, Harvey Norman closed its store due to poor sales and was replaced by JB Hi-Fi.

### Tenants

Chatswood Chase Sydney has 63,815m² of floor space. The major retailers include David Jones, Kmart, Coles, Apple and JB Hi-Fi.

### Future

In May 2019, an expansion to the shopping centre was announced. The $327 million expansion included two new levels of shops, a seven screen cinema and "sunken oasis" dining plaza, served by extended trading hours and with an on-site gym and wellness facility. However on 10 June 2020, this redevelopment was postponed indefinitely due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

## Accessability

### No. of public toilets

4

**Chatswood Interchange** (also known as **The Interchange Chatswood** or **The Interchange**) is a shopping centre in the suburb of Chatswood in the lower North Shore of Sydney and is integrated with the Chatswood railway station and features a Woolworths Metro supermarket, 70 speciality stores, three high-rise office towers and high-rise apartments.

### Transport

The Metro North West and North Shore and Northern Line offer frequent services to Chatswood station.

Chatswood Interchange has bus connections to Sydney CBD, North Shore and Northern Sydney, as well as surrounding suburbs. It is served by Forest Coach Lines and State Transit with bus stops on either side of the railway line.

There is also parking in nearby streets and car parks.

### History

The Interchange opened in 1988 integrated with the station entrance. It featured around 30 speciality stores with no anchor stores.

With the construction of the Chatswood to Epping line, The Interchange as well as Chatswood railway station and its attached bus interchange was demolished in 2005. Construction started on new railway station, bus interchange and shopping centre in late 2005. The CTI was constructed as a Public Private Partnership and was to include a new shopping centre called 'Metro Chatswood' and three towers. The private developers, CRI Chatswood, went into receivership whilst construction was underway. As a result, the shopping centre remained vacant until 2014 and major construction of the towers was delayed for several years.

The centre opened in 2014 as Chatswood Interchange. Woolworths opened its 2000sqm store and its BWS chain opened on the ground level. Many kiosks have opened in stages and the post office has relocated there.

On March 28, 2015, The District food court opened on the top level, which included 14 vendors that offered Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Italian cuisine.

As a result, Chatswood Interchange is expected to reach $634 million by 2026 and can support trade for over 75,150 people.

## Accessability

### No. of public toilets

10

**Westfield Chatswood** is a large indoor shopping centre in the suburb of Chatswood in the Lower North Shore of Sydney.

### Transport

The Metro North West and North Shore and Northern Line offer frequent services to Chatswood station which is a short walk from the centre.

Westfield Chatswood has bus connections operated by State Transit services to the Sydney CBD, North Shore and Northern Sydney, as well as surrounding suburbs with bus stops on Victoria Avenue.

Westfield Chatswood also has a multi level car park with 2,831 spaces.

### History

Westfield Chatswood opened on 30 January 1986 and is the second major shopping centre to be built in Chatswood with the first being Chatswood Chase in 1983 and Wallace Way and Lemon Grove in the 1980s. The centre was located next to the free standing Grace Bros store that opened in 1961 and featured Target (which was originally located at Wallace Way until 1986), Coles New World and Franklins (closed 2001 and renamed Food For Less). In 1999 it was redeveloped to incorporate a previously free standing Grace Bros store (later renamed Myer in 2004) and Toys "R" Us was added.

In 2008 Aldi opened its store on the space vacated by Food For Less. Spanish clothing retailer Zara opened its store on 13 February 2014.

In July 2014, as part of a restructure of the Westfield Group, it came under the control of the Scentre Group.

### Recent development

In 2015 a $110 million upgrade to Westfield Chatswood commenced, with the centre increased from 77,000sqm to 80,000sqm of gross lettable area. The redevelopment was completed in November 2015 with H&M (opened on the space vacated by Toys "R" Us), Uniqlo, Mecca Maxima and a new relocated Rebel Sport all opened on 18 February 2016.

This development consists of:

* Forty new stores
* Four new international fashion stores, as well as some local fashion stores (including Sydney's third H&M, Uniqlo, Topshop and Topman)
* Two-level entrance on Victoria Avenue reconfigured into a five-level mall which included a two-level flagship Topshop and Topman (as of September 2017 the store is now closed)
* Hawker Lane Asian dining restaurants precinct
* a reduced regular food court (KFC, Pizza Hut Express and Subway only operate)

### Tenants

Westfield Chatswood has 81,093m² of floor space. The major retailers include Myer, Target, Aldi, Coles, Uniqlo, Zara, JB Hi-Fi, Rebel, Timezone (previously known as PLAYTIME) and Hoyts Cinema.