Market Square Shopping Centre
Encyclopedia
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. The shopping centre was named after the original town square
Town square
A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...
of Geelong on which the shopping centre is constructed. The centre is surrounded by Little Malop, Moorabool, Malop, and Yarra Streets. Market Square is located on the southern side of Malop Street opposite the Westfield Geelong shopping complex.
Stores
Market Square contains numerous speciality stores such as Dymocks and Harris ScarfeHarris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe Department Stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia in 1849. At its peak, Adelaide was home to several major South Australian department stores , of which Harris Scarfe is the sole...
. In 2006, an extension into the former Safeway section of the centre saw other large chains move in, including the return of JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi is an Australian CD, DVD, Blu-ray disc, video game and consumer electronics chain store.-History:JB Hi-Fi was established in Melbourne suburb of Keilor East by John Barbuto in 1974...
to Geelong, and an EB Games.
History
- See Market Square, GeelongMarket Square, GeelongGeelong's Market Square was established as part of the initial surveying of the town. Geelong's Market Square was reserved by Governor Sir George Gipps as a town square. A water tank to provided domestic water was provided in the square in 1850 by a Mr William Grey....
for the history of the site before the centre.
The 1980s saw the first of many urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
proposals floated for the central Geelong area. The Geelong Regional Commission on November 6, 1981 released a plan that would see a massive shopping centre extend from Little Malop Street through to the waterfront. This proposal did not proceed, but a scaled down version of the plans can be seen in today's centre and the Bay City Plaza development.
It was decided by the former Geelong City Council that the shopping centre should still be completed, so investors were sought to construct the complex. This was unsuccessful, with the council instead constructing the centre itself. The shopping complex was constructed on Crown land
Crown land
In Commonwealth realms, Crown land is an area belonging to the monarch , the equivalent of an entailed estate that passed with the monarchy and could not be alienated from it....
at a cost of approximately $32 million, financed from borrowings. The project also included the creation of the Market Square Mall on Little Malop Street beside the centre, and the beautification of Moorabool Street between Malop and Ryrie Streets.
Demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
to clear the site of the new shopping centre site commenced in 1984. The CML Building on Malop Street was retained and reused as offices, while the facade of the Corio Stores on Little Malop Street and the Solomons Building on Moorabool Street were reused in the new building. The development also saw the closure of Jacobs Street that ran from near the Speaky's surf store on Malop Street to the loading dock on Little Malop Street.
The centre was officially opened by Victorian Premier John Cain
John Cain II
John Cain , Australian Labor Party politician, was the 41st Premier of Victoria, holding office from 1982 to 1990.-Biography:...
on December 3, 1985. The management of the centre was the responsibility of the city council.
The initial layout of the centre saw the Safeway supermarket located under the multi-storey car park
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
on the eastern side of the site, with a Venture
Venture (department store)
Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating across Australia. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins and was first opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country...
discount department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
located on the first floor at the western end. Speciality stores occupied the majority of the ground floor. The main entrance of the centre was on Moorabool Street, until the opening of the Bay City Plaza shopping centre on Malop Street in 1988.
Images of the centre under construction are on display in the lift lobby on level 1 near centre management. A plaque marks the site of the former Market Square clock tower
Clock tower
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...
on the ground floor near the Tattslotto
Tattslotto
TattsLotto is a weekly lottery game played on Saturday nights in Australia. The game is a product of Tatts Group. The first TattsLotto draw was televised by Melbourne television station HSV7 on 22 June 1972, and was hosted by David Johnston and Lucy Kiraly. Six numbers and two supplementary numbers...
outlet, and a display of historic documents and plaques marking the opening are located around the corner.
Sale
Upon opening the centre drew high rental incomes for the city council. However, these revenues declined by the early 1990s due to competition with Bay City Plaza and the recessionRecession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
after the collapse of the Pyramid Building Society
Pyramid Building Society
The Pyramid Building Society, the Geelong Building Society and the Countrywide Building Society together made up the Farrow Group of building societies, based in Geelong, Australia. They collapsed in 1990 with debts in excess of $2 billion...
.
In 1993 the newly created City of Greater Geelong
City of Greater Geelong
The City of Greater Geelong is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia.It is located in the western part of the state, south-west of Melbourne. It has an area of 1,240 square kilometres. In 2006 it had a population of 191,000...
decided to sell the shopping centre. The Centre was advertised for sale by tender with a closing date of 15 March 1993. No bids were received, but an offer of $27 million was received in the following weeks. None of the bidders were willing to enter into a contract, so the council withdrew the property from sale in June 1993. The Council attempted to establish a linkage with the adjoining Bay City Plaza shopping centre but was unsuccessful.
The decision to put the centre on the market again was made in September 1995.In January 1996 a minimum reserve price of $34.5 million was set. The centre was sold for $32 million when the contract of sale
Contract of sale
A contract of sale is a legal contract an exchange of goods, services or property to be exchanged from seller to buyer for an agreed upon value in money paid or the promise to pay same...
was signed on 12 March 1996, with a settlement date
Settlement date
Settlement Date is a securities industry term describing the date on which a trade settles. That is, the actual day on which transfer of cash or assets is completed....
of 28 June 1996.
The centre is currently managed by Knight Frank Australia Pty Ltd.
Alterations
The mid 1990s saw minor changes occur at the centre, with a glasshouse-style restaurant on Malop Street replaced by a surf store. The interior of the centre was repainted and tiled in a cream colour, and the exterior awnings were changed from brown to light green. The colour has recently been changed to a dark green.The large Lincraft
Lincraft
Lincraft is a retail chain in Australia that specialises in the sale of homewares, including crafts, material, and patterns. As of May 2009, it has 44 locations around Australia.Lincraft was founded in 1938 by Leo Ross as a stall shop in Melbourne....
superstore was also built at this time, and the food court was refurbished. The Venture
Venture (department store)
Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating across Australia. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins and was first opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country...
discount department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
closed in the mid 1990s and was replaced by Harris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe Department Stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia in 1849. At its peak, Adelaide was home to several major South Australian department stores , of which Harris Scarfe is the sole...
.
The early 2000s saw the elimination of Market Square Mall and the rebuilding of Little Malop Street. This road reopening saw the demolition of part of the centre located near Yarra Street. The most recent changes at the centre has been the closure of the Safeway supermarket and their replacement with a number of new stores.
Footnotes
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. The shopping centre was named after the original town square
Town square
A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...
of Geelong on which the shopping centre is constructed. The centre is surrounded by Little Malop, Moorabool, Malop, and Yarra Streets. Market Square is located on the southern side of Malop Street opposite the Westfield Geelong shopping complex.
Stores
Market Square contains numerous speciality stores such as Dymocks and Harris ScarfeHarris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe Department Stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia in 1849. At its peak, Adelaide was home to several major South Australian department stores , of which Harris Scarfe is the sole...
. In 2006, an extension into the former Safeway section of the centre saw other large chains move in, including the return of JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi is an Australian CD, DVD, Blu-ray disc, video game and consumer electronics chain store.-History:JB Hi-Fi was established in Melbourne suburb of Keilor East by John Barbuto in 1974...
to Geelong, and an EB Games.
History
- See Market Square, GeelongMarket Square, GeelongGeelong's Market Square was established as part of the initial surveying of the town. Geelong's Market Square was reserved by Governor Sir George Gipps as a town square. A water tank to provided domestic water was provided in the square in 1850 by a Mr William Grey....
for the history of the site before the centre.
The 1980s saw the first of many urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
proposals floated for the central Geelong area. The Geelong Regional Commission on November 6, 1981 released a plan that would see a massive shopping centre extend from Little Malop Street through to the waterfront. This proposal did not proceed, but a scaled down version of the plans can be seen in today's centre and the Bay City Plaza development.
It was decided by the former Geelong City Council that the shopping centre should still be completed, so investors were sought to construct the complex. This was unsuccessful, with the council instead constructing the centre itself. The shopping complex was constructed on Crown land
Crown land
In Commonwealth realms, Crown land is an area belonging to the monarch , the equivalent of an entailed estate that passed with the monarchy and could not be alienated from it....
at a cost of approximately $32 million, financed from borrowings. The project also included the creation of the Market Square Mall on Little Malop Street beside the centre, and the beautification of Moorabool Street between Malop and Ryrie Streets.
Demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
to clear the site of the new shopping centre site commenced in 1984. The CML Building on Malop Street was retained and reused as offices, while the facade of the Corio Stores on Little Malop Street and the Solomons Building on Moorabool Street were reused in the new building. The development also saw the closure of Jacobs Street that ran from near the Speaky's surf store on Malop Street to the loading dock on Little Malop Street.
The centre was officially opened by Victorian Premier John Cain
John Cain II
John Cain , Australian Labor Party politician, was the 41st Premier of Victoria, holding office from 1982 to 1990.-Biography:...
on December 3, 1985. The management of the centre was the responsibility of the city council.
The initial layout of the centre saw the Safeway supermarket located under the multi-storey car park
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
on the eastern side of the site, with a Venture
Venture (department store)
Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating across Australia. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins and was first opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country...
discount department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
located on the first floor at the western end. Speciality stores occupied the majority of the ground floor. The main entrance of the centre was on Moorabool Street, until the opening of the Bay City Plaza shopping centre on Malop Street in 1988.
Images of the centre under construction are on display in the lift lobby on level 1 near centre management. A plaque marks the site of the former Market Square clock tower
Clock tower
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...
on the ground floor near the Tattslotto
Tattslotto
TattsLotto is a weekly lottery game played on Saturday nights in Australia. The game is a product of Tatts Group. The first TattsLotto draw was televised by Melbourne television station HSV7 on 22 June 1972, and was hosted by David Johnston and Lucy Kiraly. Six numbers and two supplementary numbers...
outlet, and a display of historic documents and plaques marking the opening are located around the corner.
Sale
Upon opening the centre drew high rental incomes for the city council. However, these revenues declined by the early 1990s due to competition with Bay City Plaza and the recessionRecession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
after the collapse of the Pyramid Building Society
Pyramid Building Society
The Pyramid Building Society, the Geelong Building Society and the Countrywide Building Society together made up the Farrow Group of building societies, based in Geelong, Australia. They collapsed in 1990 with debts in excess of $2 billion...
.
In 1993 the newly created City of Greater Geelong
City of Greater Geelong
The City of Greater Geelong is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia.It is located in the western part of the state, south-west of Melbourne. It has an area of 1,240 square kilometres. In 2006 it had a population of 191,000...
decided to sell the shopping centre. The Centre was advertised for sale by tender with a closing date of 15 March 1993. No bids were received, but an offer of $27 million was received in the following weeks. None of the bidders were willing to enter into a contract, so the council withdrew the property from sale in June 1993. The Council attempted to establish a linkage with the adjoining Bay City Plaza shopping centre but was unsuccessful.
The decision to put the centre on the market again was made in September 1995.In January 1996 a minimum reserve price of $34.5 million was set. The centre was sold for $32 million when the contract of sale
Contract of sale
A contract of sale is a legal contract an exchange of goods, services or property to be exchanged from seller to buyer for an agreed upon value in money paid or the promise to pay same...
was signed on 12 March 1996, with a settlement date
Settlement date
Settlement Date is a securities industry term describing the date on which a trade settles. That is, the actual day on which transfer of cash or assets is completed....
of 28 June 1996.
The centre is currently managed by Knight Frank Australia Pty Ltd.
Alterations
The mid 1990s saw minor changes occur at the centre, with a glasshouse-style restaurant on Malop Street replaced by a surf store. The interior of the centre was repainted and tiled in a cream colour, and the exterior awnings were changed from brown to light green. The colour has recently been changed to a dark green.The large Lincraft
Lincraft
Lincraft is a retail chain in Australia that specialises in the sale of homewares, including crafts, material, and patterns. As of May 2009, it has 44 locations around Australia.Lincraft was founded in 1938 by Leo Ross as a stall shop in Melbourne....
superstore was also built at this time, and the food court was refurbished. The Venture
Venture (department store)
Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating across Australia. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins and was first opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country...
discount department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
closed in the mid 1990s and was replaced by Harris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe Department Stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia in 1849. At its peak, Adelaide was home to several major South Australian department stores , of which Harris Scarfe is the sole...
.
The early 2000s saw the elimination of Market Square Mall and the rebuilding of Little Malop Street. This road reopening saw the demolition of part of the centre located near Yarra Street. The most recent changes at the centre has been the closure of the Safeway supermarket and their replacement with a number of new stores.
Footnotes
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. The shopping centre was named after the original town square
Town square
A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...
of Geelong on which the shopping centre is constructed. The centre is surrounded by Little Malop, Moorabool, Malop, and Yarra Streets. Market Square is located on the southern side of Malop Street opposite the Westfield Geelong shopping complex.
Stores
Market Square contains numerous speciality stores such as Dymocks and Harris ScarfeHarris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe Department Stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia in 1849. At its peak, Adelaide was home to several major South Australian department stores , of which Harris Scarfe is the sole...
. In 2006, an extension into the former Safeway section of the centre saw other large chains move in, including the return of JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi is an Australian CD, DVD, Blu-ray disc, video game and consumer electronics chain store.-History:JB Hi-Fi was established in Melbourne suburb of Keilor East by John Barbuto in 1974...
to Geelong, and an EB Games.
History
- See Market Square, GeelongMarket Square, GeelongGeelong's Market Square was established as part of the initial surveying of the town. Geelong's Market Square was reserved by Governor Sir George Gipps as a town square. A water tank to provided domestic water was provided in the square in 1850 by a Mr William Grey....
for the history of the site before the centre.
The 1980s saw the first of many urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
proposals floated for the central Geelong area. The Geelong Regional Commission on November 6, 1981 released a plan that would see a massive shopping centre extend from Little Malop Street through to the waterfront. This proposal did not proceed, but a scaled down version of the plans can be seen in today's centre and the Bay City Plaza development.
It was decided by the former Geelong City Council that the shopping centre should still be completed, so investors were sought to construct the complex. This was unsuccessful, with the council instead constructing the centre itself. The shopping complex was constructed on Crown land
Crown land
In Commonwealth realms, Crown land is an area belonging to the monarch , the equivalent of an entailed estate that passed with the monarchy and could not be alienated from it....
at a cost of approximately $32 million, financed from borrowings. The project also included the creation of the Market Square Mall on Little Malop Street beside the centre, and the beautification of Moorabool Street between Malop and Ryrie Streets.
Demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
to clear the site of the new shopping centre site commenced in 1984. The CML Building on Malop Street was retained and reused as offices, while the facade of the Corio Stores on Little Malop Street and the Solomons Building on Moorabool Street were reused in the new building. The development also saw the closure of Jacobs Street that ran from near the Speaky's surf store on Malop Street to the loading dock on Little Malop Street.
The centre was officially opened by Victorian Premier John Cain
John Cain II
John Cain , Australian Labor Party politician, was the 41st Premier of Victoria, holding office from 1982 to 1990.-Biography:...
on December 3, 1985. The management of the centre was the responsibility of the city council.
The initial layout of the centre saw the Safeway supermarket located under the multi-storey car park
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
on the eastern side of the site, with a Venture
Venture (department store)
Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating across Australia. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins and was first opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country...
discount department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
located on the first floor at the western end. Speciality stores occupied the majority of the ground floor. The main entrance of the centre was on Moorabool Street, until the opening of the Bay City Plaza shopping centre on Malop Street in 1988.
Images of the centre under construction are on display in the lift lobby on level 1 near centre management. A plaque marks the site of the former Market Square clock tower
Clock tower
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...
on the ground floor near the Tattslotto
Tattslotto
TattsLotto is a weekly lottery game played on Saturday nights in Australia. The game is a product of Tatts Group. The first TattsLotto draw was televised by Melbourne television station HSV7 on 22 June 1972, and was hosted by David Johnston and Lucy Kiraly. Six numbers and two supplementary numbers...
outlet, and a display of historic documents and plaques marking the opening are located around the corner.
Sale
Upon opening the centre drew high rental incomes for the city council. However, these revenues declined by the early 1990s due to competition with Bay City Plaza and the recessionRecession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
after the collapse of the Pyramid Building Society
Pyramid Building Society
The Pyramid Building Society, the Geelong Building Society and the Countrywide Building Society together made up the Farrow Group of building societies, based in Geelong, Australia. They collapsed in 1990 with debts in excess of $2 billion...
.
In 1993 the newly created City of Greater Geelong
City of Greater Geelong
The City of Greater Geelong is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia.It is located in the western part of the state, south-west of Melbourne. It has an area of 1,240 square kilometres. In 2006 it had a population of 191,000...
decided to sell the shopping centre. The Centre was advertised for sale by tender with a closing date of 15 March 1993. No bids were received, but an offer of $27 million was received in the following weeks. None of the bidders were willing to enter into a contract, so the council withdrew the property from sale in June 1993. The Council attempted to establish a linkage with the adjoining Bay City Plaza shopping centre but was unsuccessful.
The decision to put the centre on the market again was made in September 1995.In January 1996 a minimum reserve price of $34.5 million was set. The centre was sold for $32 million when the contract of sale
Contract of sale
A contract of sale is a legal contract an exchange of goods, services or property to be exchanged from seller to buyer for an agreed upon value in money paid or the promise to pay same...
was signed on 12 March 1996, with a settlement date
Settlement date
Settlement Date is a securities industry term describing the date on which a trade settles. That is, the actual day on which transfer of cash or assets is completed....
of 28 June 1996.
The centre is currently managed by Knight Frank Australia Pty Ltd.
Alterations
The mid 1990s saw minor changes occur at the centre, with a glasshouse-style restaurant on Malop Street replaced by a surf store. The interior of the centre was repainted and tiled in a cream colour, and the exterior awnings were changed from brown to light green. The colour has recently been changed to a dark green.The large Lincraft
Lincraft
Lincraft is a retail chain in Australia that specialises in the sale of homewares, including crafts, material, and patterns. As of May 2009, it has 44 locations around Australia.Lincraft was founded in 1938 by Leo Ross as a stall shop in Melbourne....
superstore was also built at this time, and the food court was refurbished. The Venture
Venture (department store)
Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating across Australia. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins and was first opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country...
discount department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
closed in the mid 1990s and was replaced by Harris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe Department Stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia in 1849. At its peak, Adelaide was home to several major South Australian department stores , of which Harris Scarfe is the sole...
.
The early 2000s saw the elimination of Market Square Mall and the rebuilding of Little Malop Street. This road reopening saw the demolition of part of the centre located near Yarra Street. The most recent changes at the centre has been the closure of the Safeway supermarket and their replacement with a number of new stores.
Footnotes
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. The shopping centre was named after the original town square
Town square
A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...
of Geelong on which the shopping centre is constructed. The centre is surrounded by Little Malop, Moorabool, Malop, and Yarra Streets. Market Square is located on the southern side of Malop Street opposite the Westfield Geelong shopping complex.
Stores
Market Square contains numerous speciality stores such as Dymocks and Harris ScarfeHarris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe Department Stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia in 1849. At its peak, Adelaide was home to several major South Australian department stores , of which Harris Scarfe is the sole...
. In 2006, an extension into the former Safeway section of the centre saw other large chains move in, including the return of JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi is an Australian CD, DVD, Blu-ray disc, video game and consumer electronics chain store.-History:JB Hi-Fi was established in Melbourne suburb of Keilor East by John Barbuto in 1974...
to Geelong, and an EB Games.
History
- See Market Square, GeelongMarket Square, GeelongGeelong's Market Square was established as part of the initial surveying of the town. Geelong's Market Square was reserved by Governor Sir George Gipps as a town square. A water tank to provided domestic water was provided in the square in 1850 by a Mr William Grey....
for the history of the site before the centre.
The 1980s saw the first of many urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
proposals floated for the central Geelong area. The Geelong Regional Commission on November 6, 1981 released a plan that would see a massive shopping centre extend from Little Malop Street through to the waterfront. This proposal did not proceed, but a scaled down version of the plans can be seen in today's centre and the Bay City Plaza development.
It was decided by the former Geelong City Council that the shopping centre should still be completed, so investors were sought to construct the complex. This was unsuccessful, with the council instead constructing the centre itself. The shopping complex was constructed on Crown land
Crown land
In Commonwealth realms, Crown land is an area belonging to the monarch , the equivalent of an entailed estate that passed with the monarchy and could not be alienated from it....
at a cost of approximately $32 million, financed from borrowings. The project also included the creation of the Market Square Mall on Little Malop Street beside the centre, and the beautification of Moorabool Street between Malop and Ryrie Streets.
Demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
to clear the site of the new shopping centre site commenced in 1984. The CML Building on Malop Street was retained and reused as offices, while the facade of the Corio Stores on Little Malop Street and the Solomons Building on Moorabool Street were reused in the new building. The development also saw the closure of Jacobs Street that ran from near the Speaky's surf store on Malop Street to the loading dock on Little Malop Street.
The centre was officially opened by Victorian Premier John Cain
John Cain II
John Cain , Australian Labor Party politician, was the 41st Premier of Victoria, holding office from 1982 to 1990.-Biography:...
on December 3, 1985. The management of the centre was the responsibility of the city council.
The initial layout of the centre saw the Safeway supermarket located under the multi-storey car park
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
on the eastern side of the site, with a Venture
Venture (department store)
Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating across Australia. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins and was first opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country...
discount department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
located on the first floor at the western end. Speciality stores occupied the majority of the ground floor. The main entrance of the centre was on Moorabool Street, until the opening of the Bay City Plaza shopping centre on Malop Street in 1988.
Images of the centre under construction are on display in the lift lobby on level 1 near centre management. A plaque marks the site of the former Market Square clock tower
Clock tower
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...
on the ground floor near the Tattslotto
Tattslotto
TattsLotto is a weekly lottery game played on Saturday nights in Australia. The game is a product of Tatts Group. The first TattsLotto draw was televised by Melbourne television station HSV7 on 22 June 1972, and was hosted by David Johnston and Lucy Kiraly. Six numbers and two supplementary numbers...
outlet, and a display of historic documents and plaques marking the opening are located around the corner.
Sale
Upon opening the centre drew high rental incomes for the city council. However, these revenues declined by the early 1990s due to competition with Bay City Plaza and the recessionRecession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
after the collapse of the Pyramid Building Society
Pyramid Building Society
The Pyramid Building Society, the Geelong Building Society and the Countrywide Building Society together made up the Farrow Group of building societies, based in Geelong, Australia. They collapsed in 1990 with debts in excess of $2 billion...
.
In 1993 the newly created City of Greater Geelong
City of Greater Geelong
The City of Greater Geelong is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia.It is located in the western part of the state, south-west of Melbourne. It has an area of 1,240 square kilometres. In 2006 it had a population of 191,000...
decided to sell the shopping centre. The Centre was advertised for sale by tender with a closing date of 15 March 1993. No bids were received, but an offer of $27 million was received in the following weeks. None of the bidders were willing to enter into a contract, so the council withdrew the property from sale in June 1993. The Council attempted to establish a linkage with the adjoining Bay City Plaza shopping centre but was unsuccessful.
The decision to put the centre on the market again was made in September 1995.In January 1996 a minimum reserve price of $34.5 million was set. The centre was sold for $32 million when the contract of sale
Contract of sale
A contract of sale is a legal contract an exchange of goods, services or property to be exchanged from seller to buyer for an agreed upon value in money paid or the promise to pay same...
was signed on 12 March 1996, with a settlement date
Settlement date
Settlement Date is a securities industry term describing the date on which a trade settles. That is, the actual day on which transfer of cash or assets is completed....
of 28 June 1996.
The centre is currently managed by Knight Frank Australia Pty Ltd.
Alterations
The mid 1990s saw minor changes occur at the centre, with a glasshouse-style restaurant on Malop Street replaced by a surf store. The interior of the centre was repainted and tiled in a cream colour, and the exterior awnings were changed from brown to light green. The colour has recently been changed to a dark green.The large Lincraft
Lincraft
Lincraft is a retail chain in Australia that specialises in the sale of homewares, including crafts, material, and patterns. As of May 2009, it has 44 locations around Australia.Lincraft was founded in 1938 by Leo Ross as a stall shop in Melbourne....
superstore was also built at this time, and the food court was refurbished. The Venture
Venture (department store)
Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating across Australia. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins and was first opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country...
discount department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
closed in the mid 1990s and was replaced by Harris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe Department Stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia in 1849. At its peak, Adelaide was home to several major South Australian department stores , of which Harris Scarfe is the sole...
.
The early 2000s saw the elimination of Market Square Mall and the rebuilding of Little Malop Street. This road reopening saw the demolition of part of the centre located near Yarra Street. The most recent changes at the centre has been the closure of the Safeway supermarket and their replacement with a number of new stores.
Footnotes
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. The shopping centre was named after the original town square
Town square
A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...
of Geelong on which the shopping centre is constructed. The centre is surrounded by Little Malop, Moorabool, Malop, and Yarra Streets. Market Square is located on the southern side of Malop Street opposite the Westfield Geelong shopping complex.
Stores
Market Square contains numerous speciality stores such as Dymocks and Harris ScarfeHarris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe Department Stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia in 1849. At its peak, Adelaide was home to several major South Australian department stores , of which Harris Scarfe is the sole...
. In 2006, an extension into the former Safeway section of the centre saw other large chains move in, including the return of JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi is an Australian CD, DVD, Blu-ray disc, video game and consumer electronics chain store.-History:JB Hi-Fi was established in Melbourne suburb of Keilor East by John Barbuto in 1974...
to Geelong, and an EB Games.
History
- See Market Square, GeelongMarket Square, GeelongGeelong's Market Square was established as part of the initial surveying of the town. Geelong's Market Square was reserved by Governor Sir George Gipps as a town square. A water tank to provided domestic water was provided in the square in 1850 by a Mr William Grey....
for the history of the site before the centre.
The 1980s saw the first of many urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
proposals floated for the central Geelong area. The Geelong Regional Commission on November 6, 1981 released a plan that would see a massive shopping centre extend from Little Malop Street through to the waterfront. This proposal did not proceed, but a scaled down version of the plans can be seen in today's centre and the Bay City Plaza development.
It was decided by the former Geelong City Council that the shopping centre should still be completed, so investors were sought to construct the complex. This was unsuccessful, with the council instead constructing the centre itself. The shopping complex was constructed on Crown land
Crown land
In Commonwealth realms, Crown land is an area belonging to the monarch , the equivalent of an entailed estate that passed with the monarchy and could not be alienated from it....
at a cost of approximately $32 million, financed from borrowings. The project also included the creation of the Market Square Mall on Little Malop Street beside the centre, and the beautification of Moorabool Street between Malop and Ryrie Streets.
Demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
to clear the site of the new shopping centre site commenced in 1984. The CML Building on Malop Street was retained and reused as offices, while the facade of the Corio Stores on Little Malop Street and the Solomons Building on Moorabool Street were reused in the new building. The development also saw the closure of Jacobs Street that ran from near the Speaky's surf store on Malop Street to the loading dock on Little Malop Street.
The centre was officially opened by Victorian Premier John Cain
John Cain II
John Cain , Australian Labor Party politician, was the 41st Premier of Victoria, holding office from 1982 to 1990.-Biography:...
on December 3, 1985. The management of the centre was the responsibility of the city council.
The initial layout of the centre saw the Safeway supermarket located under the multi-storey car park
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
on the eastern side of the site, with a Venture
Venture (department store)
Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating across Australia. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins and was first opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country...
discount department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
located on the first floor at the western end. Speciality stores occupied the majority of the ground floor. The main entrance of the centre was on Moorabool Street, until the opening of the Bay City Plaza shopping centre on Malop Street in 1988.
Images of the centre under construction are on display in the lift lobby on level 1 near centre management. A plaque marks the site of the former Market Square clock tower
Clock tower
A clock tower is a tower specifically built with one or more clock faces. Clock towers can be either freestanding or part of a church or municipal building such as a town hall. Some clock towers are not true clock towers having had their clock faces added to an already existing building...
on the ground floor near the Tattslotto
Tattslotto
TattsLotto is a weekly lottery game played on Saturday nights in Australia. The game is a product of Tatts Group. The first TattsLotto draw was televised by Melbourne television station HSV7 on 22 June 1972, and was hosted by David Johnston and Lucy Kiraly. Six numbers and two supplementary numbers...
outlet, and a display of historic documents and plaques marking the opening are located around the corner.
Sale
Upon opening the centre drew high rental incomes for the city council. However, these revenues declined by the early 1990s due to competition with Bay City Plaza and the recessionRecession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
after the collapse of the Pyramid Building Society
Pyramid Building Society
The Pyramid Building Society, the Geelong Building Society and the Countrywide Building Society together made up the Farrow Group of building societies, based in Geelong, Australia. They collapsed in 1990 with debts in excess of $2 billion...
.
In 1993 the newly created City of Greater Geelong
City of Greater Geelong
The City of Greater Geelong is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia.It is located in the western part of the state, south-west of Melbourne. It has an area of 1,240 square kilometres. In 2006 it had a population of 191,000...
decided to sell the shopping centre. The Centre was advertised for sale by tender with a closing date of 15 March 1993. No bids were received, but an offer of $27 million was received in the following weeks. None of the bidders were willing to enter into a contract, so the council withdrew the property from sale in June 1993. The Council attempted to establish a linkage with the adjoining Bay City Plaza shopping centre but was unsuccessful.
The decision to put the centre on the market again was made in September 1995.In January 1996 a minimum reserve price of $34.5 million was set. The centre was sold for $32 million when the contract of sale
Contract of sale
A contract of sale is a legal contract an exchange of goods, services or property to be exchanged from seller to buyer for an agreed upon value in money paid or the promise to pay same...
was signed on 12 March 1996, with a settlement date
Settlement date
Settlement Date is a securities industry term describing the date on which a trade settles. That is, the actual day on which transfer of cash or assets is completed....
of 28 June 1996.
The centre is currently managed by Knight Frank Australia Pty Ltd.
Alterations
The mid 1990s saw minor changes occur at the centre, with a glasshouse-style restaurant on Malop Street replaced by a surf store. The interior of the centre was repainted and tiled in a cream colour, and the exterior awnings were changed from brown to light green. The colour has recently been changed to a dark green.The large Lincraft
Lincraft
Lincraft is a retail chain in Australia that specialises in the sale of homewares, including crafts, material, and patterns. As of May 2009, it has 44 locations around Australia.Lincraft was founded in 1938 by Leo Ross as a stall shop in Melbourne....
superstore was also built at this time, and the food court was refurbished. The Venture
Venture (department store)
Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating across Australia. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins and was first opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country...
discount department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
closed in the mid 1990s and was replaced by Harris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe
Harris Scarfe Department Stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia in 1849. At its peak, Adelaide was home to several major South Australian department stores , of which Harris Scarfe is the sole...
.
The early 2000s saw the elimination of Market Square Mall and the rebuilding of Little Malop Street. This road reopening saw the demolition of part of the centre located near Yarra Street. The most recent changes at the centre has been the closure of the Safeway supermarket and their replacement with a number of new stores.
Footnotes
