Westfield Whitford City is a major shopping centre owned by the Westfield Group, which is located east of St. Mark's Anglican Community School in Hillarys, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The centre was built on the former Red Cattle Ridge site, located approximately north west of the Perth CBD on Marmion Avenue. In 2006, the shopping centre had an annual turnover of $395.4 million and approximately 7.2 million customer visits. The trade-area population surrounding the shopping location is about 224,410 and the total retail spending in trade area is $2.3 billion.
History and development
Whitford City opened on 21 March 1978. The former department-store chain Aherns had an outlet at Whitford City until 1985. Whitford City is currently Perth's largest shopping centre without a flagship department store, such as a Myer, David Jones or Harris Scarfe. The shopping centre has officially been part of the Westfield Group since 2004 and is currently home to over 240 speciality stores. In July 2014, the Westfield Group became two companies, Scentre Group and Westfield Corporation. The centre is now owned and managed by Scentre Group.
Redevelopments
In 1996, a Grand Cinema complex called Prithis, which is part of Greater Union, and the now closed Intencity video arcade were developed. While Westfield Whitford City has been gradually upgraded over the years, the most extensive development occurred between 2002 and 2004. The area was expanded to about twice its original size and over 100 new stores have been added to the centre. Woolworths was relocated to the far west of the centre and a new Best & Less store was built. A new fresh food mall and restaurant precinct called The Piazza, which is located on top of the Dampier Avenue entrance, were both added. Upon completion, the centre was re-branded as part of the Westfield Shopping Centre Group. Another decently major development occurred in 2016-2017. Construction started around August 2016 and would have a fully refurbished Al Fresco dining area were the Piazza was. The dining area included 10 dining areas with one bar. The development also included an 8 screen Event Cinemas complex replacing Grand Cinemas. The new cinema complex at four basic screens, two VMAX screens and 2 Gold Class screens. The development was completed on 21 September 2017 and had a total cost of $80 million.
Addition of David Jones
announced on 25 November 2008 that the company would open a two-level store within the centre complex in early 2012 as part of a $200 million redevelopment of Westfield. David Jones would then be the first department store in the growing centre. According to initial development plans presented by the company, the store will be located in a reconfigured space where Progressive IGA currently exists, and the area surrounding the existing Big W would be reconfigured. When David Jones opens, it will have the second highest growth of any store in the portfolio with department store-type merchandise growing at around 6.1% per annum. The centre's moving annual turnover has been increasing at 12.5% per annum and, as a result, now has the third highest MAT in Western Australia after Garden City, Booragoon and Westfield Carousel. It was recently confirmed David Jones Limited will open its doors as expected when it opens in 2019. In 2019, it was confirmed that David Jones would be shelved once again with development shifting towards another retailer, being announced soon.
As stage 1 opened on 21 September 2017, stage 2 has been confirmed. All that is known is the development will include a David Jones Limited department store as a partnership started in early 2017 to open 3 new David Jones stores in all Westfield shopping centres in Western Australia. Stage 2 is expected to be done in the next few years. In June 2019, a new ALDI supermarket was announced to open in the centre, in between the Fresh Food Market and Target, set to open in early 2020, however, it has since been delayed to later in the year.
