Westfield Chermside, colloquially known as 'Chermy' or 'Chermside', is a large shopping centre in Queensland, located in a Brisbane inner northern suburb. It is the 2nd largest in Australia by number of stores, behind Chadstone Shopping Centre and is operated by Scentre Group. Entertainment facilities include an Event Cinemas 16-screen cinema complex. The centre contains the Chermside bus station, a major hub for buses north of Brisbane. Westfield Chermside's trade area population is 439,600; one of the largest markets for shopping centres in Queensland and Australia; its 15.5 million customer visits per annum make it Australia's 2nd busiest Westfield shopping centre. The centre is located on the corner of Gympie Road and Hamilton Road.
The Centre also has many restaurants, cafes and specialty stores. Spread across the first and second levels. Restaurants span across four levels. The new restaurant precinct opened on 22 June 2017, creating Westfield’s largest dining precinct.
History
Chermside Drive-In Shopping Centre was opened on 31 May 1957 by the then Premier of QueenslandVince Gair. Police were needed to keep an estimated 15,000 shoppers who had queued to secure bargains. It was marketed as the first suburban-style, post-war shopping precinct in the southern hemisphere. The shopping centre was air-conditioned and had a modern design. It initially contained an Allan & Stark department store, a Brisbane Cash & Carry supermarket, 24 speciality stores, parking for 650 cars and covered 28 acres. Porters were available to carry purchased items to shoppers’ cars. Allan & Stark became Myer in 1959 when the latter company purchased the former. In 1965, the centre was air-conditioned and a restaurant was constructed. The original building that housed Myer was razed and a larger three level replacement building was opened in June 1977. Several renovations were completed in 1985, 1986 and 1987 adding another 29 stores and an underground car park to the centre. A business mall was constructed in February 1992. The Westfield Group purchased the property from Coles-Myer in December 1996. In 1999, work began on a major redevelopment of the centre which was to nearly double its floor space. The redevelopment resulted in most of the existing structure being demolished, save for the Myer store and some pieces of adjoining mall, to make way for the larger complex. Stage one opened on 9 August, which contained a Coles and a new bus interchange. In 2000, the second stage of the redevelopment opened, containing a Kmart, Bi-Lo, Target and a 900-seat food court. A new Birch Carroll & Coyle cinema complex also opened, which took many customers away from the one then at Westfield Toombul In 2005, construction began on another expansion, which officially opened on 19 October 2006 and contained 2,300 more car parks, and over 100 new specialty stores. In August 2007, the two level David Jones store was officially opened and is located in the same expansion. The following year saw the opening of another department store on the site of the former Bi-Lo supermarket, however smaller, which is the first Harris Scarfe store in Brisbane. In late 2009, an Apple Store opened in the centre. In 2011, Westfield Chermside introduced a new 'Park Assist' system to help shoppers find available car parks quicker. At the same time the centre also introduced a pay parking scheme designed to stop commuters parking vehicles at the centre. Parking under three hours remains free and entry after 6 pm will be free as well. Despite all its major successes during its ownership by Westfield, the centre has been blamed for the downturn in trade in surrounding shopping centres, especially Centro Toombul. In the case of Toombul, the ex-Westfield centre's trade has been affected during the 21st century, David Jones, and many other stores have closed down at Centro Toombul. In 2015, Scentre Group announced the Westfield Chermside Redevelopment, which will add up to 95 new retailers, a gallery mall, new dining and entertainment precincts and major expansion to the second floor. Construction was started in January 2015 and the new area was opened to shoppers on 6 April 2017. The new development included international fast fashion stores like H&M, Sephora and Zara. The Westfield Chermside Redevelopment, which was known as "The New Westfield Chermside" opened in early 2017. This expansion was addition of a second level of stores above the Myer to David Jones fashion mall, and introduced international brands including H&M, Sephora, Uniqlo and Zara. JB HiFi, Rebel & Optus also moved from their existing stores to new locations in the redevelopment. On 22 June 2017 the final stage of the redevelopment was officially opened. This included a dining precinct with more than 20 cafes and restaurants, an incubator store alley and a lifestyle precinct with new A bowling alley, laser tag, new Gymnasium and a child minding centre.
