Toowong Village was awarded the title of Queensland Shopping Centre of the Year – 2023. SCN  visited the centre and met the management team. It’s no surprise to us that it won the title; it’s a centre that’s been redeveloped totally in accordance with its customer demands. As such, it’s become the undisputable community focal point of its surrounds.

If you ponder the question, ‘what makes a great shopping centre?’ you’ll come up with a plethora of answers, ranging from location to the mix, from the anchors to the parking, and a myriad of responses in between. To put forward a ‘single’ reason is more difficult. Go to Toowong Village in Brisbane’s south-west and, from the moment you walk in, it’s clear why it won the coveted award of Queensland’s Shopping Centre of the Year 2023. People like being there!

L-R: Ingrid Liou, Phoebe Richardson, Steven Bridges, Kerri Jones and Darren Hitchon

Toowong Village is about a 15-minute drive from the Brisbane CBD – almost due south on Coronation Drive, which follows the Brisbane River. The major entrance is flanked by a collection of restaurants with a collective outdoor seating component. It’s a pleasant place to sit – just off the street with tasteful glass windbreaks separating the diners from the pavement – and as we enter the centre just after midday, there’s a hum of conversation, interspersed with laughter and smiles lighting up faces.

Inside, it’s the same. There’s more communal seating area at the entry point; a smart cafe is serving coffee where cakes and sumptuous pizza are displayed. The seating is popular and occupied mostly by a mix of students, families, couples young and old, and singles on computers. In the background, a run of fruit and vegetables are attractively displayed; walking down the mall you pass a bakery, sushi shop, another cafe, the newsagent and, coming into the central court, Terry White Chemist flanks the huge atrium. It’s a three-level space traversed by huge travelators.

Toowong Village against the Brisbane skyline

At ground level, the central court and atrium host the Coles Supermarket entrance and, again, the space houses communal seating served by cafes and food and beverage operators. There’s no ‘clinical theme’ here; no strict adherence to a ‘precinctualised’ tenant mix, but you’d be sadly mistaken if you thought this was the result of amateurism. This is a mix that constitutes a ‘village’; it’s alive, vibrant, busy, visually stimulating. It’s a space designed for social interaction; the team responsible for this centre understood completely the importance of producing a space that brings people together. And they’ve achieved exactly that.

They’ve created the community focal point.

Toowong Village opened in 1986, a three-level centre with a Coles Supermarket on the ground floor while the two upper floors housed David Jones department stores (on both levels) with Kmart on the top floor. The ground level was always buzzing but the two upper floors underperformed in comparison. David Jones was suffering a fate similar to those of major department stores all over the world; its importance and dominance was rapidly declining. In mid-2021 – after 35 years – David Jones departed Toowong Village, leaving two vacant spaces on the gallery and level 1, each of about 4,500m2 in area. Opportunities presented themselves!

Toowong Village Atrium

Woolworths had closed its standalone supermarket just opposite the centre in 2017; Toowong Village was a natural fit and the former David Jones’ space on the gallery level was perfect for a full-line supermarket. The upper-level former David Jones space was split into two tenancies – TK Maxx took one and the Brisbane grocery chain, Fresco, gained the other.

With such powerful majors, Toowong Village owner, YFG Shopping Centres and its manager, Retail First, bit the bullet and embarked on a redevelopment of the centre.

Architect firm The Buchan Group was commissioned and a major decision to realign the travelators was taken. The realignment fed customers to the Woolworths entry, which significantly improved traffic flow and created easy access to all three levels. New lifts provided access to all levels from the street. In addition, floor surfaces were updated, while new lighting, signage and interior décor transformed the centre into the dynamic entity it is today.

Toowong Village Atrium

Of course, leasing took a leading role. Hanaromart, the Queensland Asian grocery chain was secured on the ground floor and specialty shop re-mixing was undertaken on all three levels. New tenancies were introduced and what previously had been a shopping centre with a vibrant ground floor with two somewhat uninspiring levels above, was transformed into a bustling, lively and vibrant three-level centre.

What Retail First has achieved with Toowong Village is truly remarkable. The company manages 21 centres – representing the largest privately-owned shopping centre portfolio in Australia – with a combined MAT of some $2.2 billion coming from a total GLA of 535,369m2. Its level of expertise is clearly defined at Toowong Village.

What the trained eye will discern here is a meticulous attention to the market. Toowong is an affluent suburb with an average household income in excess of $1,900 per week (2021 Census). Located close to the CBD, the area has professionals, families and a high proportion of students, due to its proximity to the University of Queensland. In addition, comfortably-off retirees constitute a significant portion of its demographic.

Toowong Village is a place where these people come to congregate. The centre’s positioning statement is: “Love the Village”; you see it constantly and the fact is, people do. And they love it because they ‘own it’. It’s their centre and it’s got exactly what they want.

It’s an unusual mix for a Little Gun because the GLA of 31,882m2 is home to some 84 retailers but, even more interesting, is the manner in which they are distributed throughout the centre. And, as stated previously, this is no accidental retail planning – it’s been specifically designed to revitalise the entire centre – there’s not a single ‘dead pocket’ on any level.

When we look at the distribution of the majors and mini-majors, for example, Coles at ground level is complemented by Hanaromart Asian Grocer; there’s Village Meats, a delicatessen, fruit and veg, and bulk foods, among others. But this is not purely a ‘food and grocery’ level; there’s a chemist here, a newsagent, travel and even a kitchen shop. But it’s also a restaurant precinct – offering the town’s major eating and drinking hub – and although the majority of that component faces the street, inside the centre, people are sitting and eating and drinking at various cafes and coffee bars dotted throughout the level.

And the upper two levels conform to similar retail planning principles. Woolworths anchors the middle (gallery) level, complemented by The Source Bulk Foods and the Toowong Deli. It’s on this level one will find Bed Bath ’N Table, health and beauty outlets, travel and, of course, the ubiquitous cafes and coffee bars.

Kmart is the largest retailer on the top floor (level 1) but there’s also a supermarket – the aforementioned Fresco, meaning a supermarket is located conveniently on every level. Health and beauty, fashion and a mix of services are also offered across every level.

Toowong Village’s truly remarkable and unique retail planning has actually achieved a traditional ‘village or town centre’ retail precinct on each of its three levels!

Toowong Village can’t expand its size – it’s landlocked – so the redevelopment exercise was all about maximising the productivity of every square metre of GLA. The realignment of the travelators was a masterful stroke, an expensive project without a guaranteed ROI at the planning stage. A gutsy decision that has paid off in spades. What’s more, the customer journey through the three-level centre is effortless, the pedestrian flow is smooth and supermarket trolleys move easily.

Toowong Village Atrium

The revitalised centre was launched earlier this year and the marketing campaign was a further affirmation of the team’s expertise.

Instead of a ‘one-off’ event, the team decided on a longer-term, community-oriented campaign that would appeal directly to the target market, re-engage the customers and drive traffic to all three levels. The customer profile at Toowong was characterised by a strong appreciation for culture and active involvement in community initiatives. The team engaged local sculptor Dave Joffe who crafted ten large fibreglass hearts; each one was entrusted to a local artist who painted it according to their unique style. Aligning with a chosen heart, ten local charities were involved in an online auction, with all proceeds benefiting their respective causes. The Heart Gallery proved an enormous success with shoppers flocking to the exhibition on the two upper levels. The donations raised some $42,000!

But we can’t leave Toowong Village without a mention of the library. If anything shows the reality of how this centre is the true community focal point of its surrounds, it’s the library. What’s a library in a shopping centre? More often than not, it’s a non-entity; a concession to the local Council at the planning stage. Not here at Toowong Village.

At 1:30pm on a Thursday, the library was packed. Almost every individual workstation housed a student on a computer. Other communal desk spaces housed people of all ages studiously occupied. In the centre space was a large, carpeted area ringed with comfortable arm-chairs; about 20 in all, every single one occupied; some inhabitants resting while gently listening to music from ear pods, others using laptops, some reading books and others the daily newspaper. In the corner, a couple were playing chess, and the conference room was engaged with about a dozen people attending an art class. This is a library occupied and used to its capacity, a true community space, reflective of the centre as a whole.

Toowong Village’s positioning statement hit the nail on the head: ‘Love the Village’. Its community does and it’s palpable!

In SCN’s view, within a very short period of time, competition for space at Toowong Village will be intense. It will be a zero-vacancy centre that already has the potential to become one of the Top 10 Little Guns in terms of MAT/m2 performance.

This article is featured in the latest edition of SCN. Premium members can view the digital magazine here.