By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE
Village Sky City Cinemas hopes to open an eight-screen cinema at the Fraser Cove shopping area in Tauranga by next year.
Population growth in the Western Bay of Plenty has given the company confidence to proceed, said chief executive Joe Moodabe.
Fraser Cove, in Tauranga South, was well situated, with ample parking and complementary activities, he said.
In November, 12 shops will open in stage two of the $30 million shopping mall on Fraser St, between downtown Tauranga and Greerton.
Among them will be several national retailers new to the Tauranga area, Paul Keane, a director of Retail Consulting Group, the principal consultants for the project, said yesterday.
Included would be the first stores outside Auckland for both Rendells and Baby City.
Fraser Cove, developed by IMF Westland, was launched last year with its anchor tenant, The Warehouse, opening its biggest outlet in the North Island.
The 9000sq m store is 3km from a 5800sq m Warehouse superstore on a Cameron Rd site with no room for expansion. Another "big red shed" at Papamoa has since been extended.
The national development manager for The Warehouse, Ian Hartshorne, said his company was pleased with its Fraser St store and welcomed the cinema plans. He said retail and entertainment benefited each other.
Mr Keane said buying more land to add to the 53ha shopping mall site was among options being explored.
Set in the Fraser St industrial area overlooking the Waimapu Estuary, it was away from the congestion of Tauranga's central business area and easily accessible to people from a wide residential area.
Mr Keane said work on the 20,000sq m mall would step up within the next month.
The other large shopping centre in the Tauranga area, Bayfair at Mt Maunganui, has undergone a $40 million expansion, doubling its size to 27,000sq m.
Its owner, Tower Property Fund, last month revealed it was considering putting in up to six movie screens to meet a growing demand for entertainment.
Tauranga has eight screens in the central city and four in downtown Mt Maunganui.
Tauranga cinema-goers to get bigger choice
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