From The Messenger:
Glenside's $68 million retail revamp
Local News21 Dec 11 @ 07:30am by Emma Altschwager
A $68 MILLION retail centre, including a fashion avenue, supermarket, food court and fitness centre, is planned for part of the Glenside Hospital land.
The centre, to be developed by the Commercial Retail Group (CRG) which also owns the Frewville Shopping Centre on Glen Osmond Rd, is proposed for land which straddles the Glenside Hospital site to the north and the Frewville Shopping Centre to the south.
Plans for the centre, which were presented to Burnside Council last week, include a cafe precinct, about 40 speciality shops - some of which will form a fashion avenue - a new supermarket, a food court, a fitness centre and 970 carparks.
As part of the development, the Frewville Shopping Centre, which underwent a $2 million upgrade earlier this year, would be demolished and rebuilt.
CRG general manager Mike Rutherford said it upgraded the Frewville centre knowing it would be razed as part of the new development to “remain commercially viable and maintain competitiveness”.
Mr Rutherford said, if approved, the new centre would be developed in two stages, with initial work starting late next year and stage two to be completed by 2015.
He said breaking the project in two would allow “seamless trading” of the existing Frewville Foodland and five other tenants, which would relocate to the new centre before demolition work.
Plans for the shopping centre had to meet criteria set by the State Government including height restrictions and integration with the new hospital and village green.
“It’s very much a community place - that’s why it’s been designed with two very big malls, a mix of tenancies, especially cafes and coffee shops, to make it a meeting place,” Mr Rutherford said.
The plans also revealed 23 significant trees and a section of a state-heritage listed wall on the site would have to be removed to make way for the centre.
However, Mr Rutherford said the majority of the wall would be retained and made a focal point of the development.
The State Government gave CRG the first right to develop a retail precinct on the site when it announced plans to redevelop the Glenside Hospital in 2007.
The plans require the approval of the Government’s Development Assessment Commission (DAC).
Burnside Council will write to the DAC to express its concerns with the development, including insufficient parking and demolition of part of the heritage wall.
