A new $45 million retail development is about to be unveiled, creating a contemporary shopping hub in the heart of the Sunshine Coast and much-needed boost to the local economy.
Three of Australia’s most popular stores will offer customers a one-stop centre to restyle the home, put together an affordable but stylish outfit, get crafty and creative, and find lifestyle products from the largest family tent to the smallest fishing hook.
Spotlight Property Group is opening Stage 1 of the 4.35-hectare Maroochydore City Centre site at 53-91 Dalton Drive.
The 11,000m2 retail precinct houses tenants including Spotlight, Anaconda and Harris Scarfe, with the flagship Spotlight store the largest to be built worldwide at almost 6000m2.
Australian Olympic gold medallist Giaan Rooney (who has her own GR By Giaan Rooney range exclusive to Harris Scarfe) will officially open Harris Scarfe Maroochydore, the first for the region, on Thursday, February 10. Harris Scarfe chief executive officer Graham Dean also will be in attendance.
Doors will burst open at 9am with free coffee and food for the first 100 customers and live entertainment from 8.30am to noon.
Harris Scarfe is one of Australia’s longest trading retailers, with over 160 years of experience, and a history dating to 1849 in South Australia.
More than 2000 staff are employed in Australia, with another 43 stores across the metropolitan and regional areas of South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland.
The budget department store staff pride themselves on helpful and friendly customer service, selling Harris Scarfe exclusive brands and national favourites such as Linen House, Circulon, Tefal, Maxwell & Williams, Tontine, Bonds, Berlei, Fila and Jane Lamerton among homewares and the latest women’s and men’s fashion, underwear, business wear, shoes and sports clothing.
Anaconda boasts the largest range of outdoor, adventure and sporting products in Australia to encourage happier and healthier lifestyles, with the new store catering to enthusiasts in areas including camping, hiking, fishing, four-wheel-driving, cycling, kayaking, snorkeling, diving and rock climbing.
Spotlight will be the last tenant to open in Stage 1 of the development next Wednesday, February 16, at a ceremony including Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson and partners and representatives from SunCentral Maroochydore, McNab Builders and Walker Corporation.
Spotlight Group executive deputy chairman Zac Fried, Spotlight chief executive officer Quentin Gracanin and the Spotlight Group senior leadership team will also attend the opening ceremony.
Mr Fried and Mayor Jamieson will do the Spotlight Maroochydore ribbon cutting at 7.45am, followed by the 8am store opening with free coffee, gelato, sausage sizzle, entertainment, competitions and DIY demonstrations for customers.
Mr Fried called the new store “a flagship development for Queensland and a key milestone for the Spotlight Retail Group”.
“All our interlocutors, from the builders to the local city council through the investors and developers, have been fantastic,” he said.
“We are very proud of this collective and unprecedented project and are committed to further investment on the Sunshine Coast.
“The Maroochydore City Centre retail development has been years in the making and demonstrates our confidence in the growth and opportunities to be found here on the Sunshine Coast.”
The family-owned business is one of Australia’s best-loved stores with an almost cult following of those in the market for a diverse range of products from fabrics and sewing needs to homewares and decor, manchester, blinds and curtains, crafts and jewellery-making, party decorations and costumes.
Its founders learned about fabrics by working at the family stall at Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market in the early 1970s.
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From opening the first store in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern in September 1973, Spotlight now has more than 100 stores across Australia, New Zealand and Asia, with hundreds of trusted brands and thousands of products.
Mr Fried said the region was seeing a significant boom in families, couples and singles relocating from around the country and this development would keep on generating hundreds of jobs for the local community, as it had already, and contribute to Queensland’s post-COVID 19 economic recovery.
Future stages of Spotlight Group’s investment in the area will include extra retail, office, tourism and hospitality venues.
The Maroochydore City Centre development is a joint project between Sunshine Coast Council, Walker Corporation and SunCentral Maroochydore.
