While Broome’s residential market continues to simmer, retailers are eyeing rare opportunities to increase their share of the spoils.
While Broome’s residential market continues to simmer, retailers are eyeing rare opportunities to increase their share of the spoils.
WA Business News understands independent retailer IGA is looking to establish its first store in the town, widely tipped to be next to the BP service station on Reid Road, south of Cable Beach.
A mini-mart is currently operating on the two hectare site, which was originally designated by the Shire of Broome for a local retail centre of the size of the nearby Seaview supermarket complex.
Broome’s major retailing centres currently consist of the Paspaley Shopping Centre in Chinatown, owned by local pearling identities the Paspaley family and anchored by Coles and Target, and the Broome Boulevard Shopping Centre, owned by Perth-based investment and development group, Primewest, and anchored by Woolworths.
Five local village centres are scattered throughout the town including BP on Reid Road.
In a review of its community strategy, the shire found there was sufficient demand to warrant an additional 18,500 square metres of shop/retail floorspace in the town by 2021.
Primewest realised the potential of the town back in 2000, when it acquired the relatively new Boulevard Shopping Centre on Frederick Street, built in 1996.
The group is in the process of expanding the centre to include a Target Store and an additional 19 specialty stores, to join Woolworths and 25 existing specialty stores.
Located mid-way between the old Chinatown precinct and Cable Beach, the expansion is expected to be completed by mid-2008.
The Paspaley family has plans to increase its shopping centre footprint by 25 per cent to accommodate larger stores and an expanded post office.
Target has previously proposed to increase its store size from 900sq m to 3,400sq m, but is understood to be moving from the Paspaley Centre into the Boulevard.
Shire president Graeme Campbell said its community strategy allowed for both expansions, while also exploring the impact of introducing a third discount department store between the two, potentially on land at the airport if it were to be relocated.
“There is certainly capacity for additional retail development in the town, but there is very little freehold land available,” he said.