THE shopping complex Peninsula Home on Bungower Rd, Mornington, next to Bunnings will get a new restaurant and an Aldi supermarket, the second in the town.
Formerly known as Peninsula Homemaker Centre (and several other names since it opened in 2005), the so-called large format retail centre (or bulky goods centre) will have a 551-square metre building erected in the middle of the car park for a 165-seat restaurant, two shops and an outside playground. About 100 of 840 car parking spaces will go.
Sydney-based centre owner BB Retail Capital will also build a 410-square metre addition to an existing shop in the northeastern corner of the complex for an Aldi supermarket of 1593 square metres.
Aldi’s first store is at Mornington Village shopping centre in Main St.
Mornington Peninsula Shire planners approved the planning permit and an amendment to the centre’s development plan in May.
In 2013, former state government planning minister Matthew Guy relaxed rules restricting supermarkets in large format retail centres, and Aldi has been aggressively expanding its empire.
A shire spokesman said “all adjoining neighbours were notified as part of the planning application and no submissions [objections] were received”.
Mirvac bought the site in July 2003 for $10 million and construction started in 2004. It opened in July 2005 as Peninsula Lifestyle. Original tenants in the 32,000 square metre centre included Betta Electrical, Officeworks, Retravision, Repco, Bedshed, Sydney’s, and Ultimate Outdoor Barbeques.
The nine-hectare site wraps around Bunnings and has parking for about 850 cars.
Mirvac sold the centre to retail entrepreneur Brett Blundy’s investment company BB Retail Capital in 2011 for $44.5 million.
Blundy, who opened his first retail store in 1980, is among Australia’s richest retailers, in the company of men like Solomon Lew, Gerry Harvey (Harvey Norman), Reg Rowe (Super Cheap Auto), and Jack Cowin (Hungry Jack’s).
He bought his first “homemaker centre” at Cranbourne in 2004 and has more than doubled its size, including spending $40 million on an expansion last year.
BB Retail Capital and its property arm own bulky goods centres nationally.
Its website states it is “the largest private investor and manager of large format retail centres in Australia with 320,000 square metres of retail showrooms in 13 large format retail centres across five states valued at about $900 million”.
The company says Peninsula Home receives 2.4 million annual customer visits.
First published in the Mornington News – 4 August 2015
