Makeover for 'outdated' plaza

David Hill has plans to modernise and expand Papamoa shopping centre. Photo / Joel Ford

Palm Beach Plaza will undergo a makeover next month as it begins the first phase of an eight-stage development project.

Up to 2.5ha of land is mooted to accommodate up to 20 extra shops that could include national and international retailers.

Tinline, a Nelson-based company, bought the plaza earlier this year and was reluctant to put a price tag on the large-scale expansion.

Centre manager David Hill said the cost had not yet been finalised and it would kick-start the process with an ambience package - that included creating clear sight lines and clearways.

"It's things like the removal of the big box by Countdown that has the ATMs in it and relocating them. Removing all those hideous eyebrows that are above all the shops at the moment and giving everything a coat of paint. We'll be skinnying up all the ceiling and structure pillars as well to modernise the plaza."

The "look" would be continued through when the plaza expanded out into the car park and over the grass area.

Stage two involved starting on the outside.

Mr Hill said: "It was a little outdated perhaps when it was built in 1997. We want to create a sense of architecture and a little bit aspirational that reflects the wants and needs of the local community." An intensive marketing survey, which included focus groups and phone and intercept surveys had helped with initial concepts.

"The fantastic thing about that was it was kind of what we thought. There are a couple of things that were left field but that is fine, we will incorporate that as well but it has given us a good sense of where we want to get to."

Palm Beach Plaza was being developed along similar lines to other ventures owned by Tinline, including the Richmond shopping centre in Nelson and Barrington in Christchurch.

It was not the intention to replicate Bayfair at Mount Maunganui, he said.

"It will be the hub of the community. Retail is a visual experience so we are up to plan number 23 already and, with all the wind over the last two or three weeks, I've just thrown them all out again. We are in the sunniest part of the country so it was going to be all open air but there is no way it's going to be open air - it will be an enclosed shopping centre because it will reflect what the locals want."

Scoops Icecream owner Sue Rowlinson said she and other plaza store owners were generally supportive of the management's redevelopment plans, however they would like to know more. "We're positive about what they want to do but, to be fair, we just hoped we'd be in the loop. It's been a struggle, as everybody has struggled, and a lot of us feel we would like to know what's happening because then we know where we're going and what we want to do."