A CHILDCARE centre, expanded supermarket and 162-space car park are planned as part of a $7 million redevelopment of the Westpoint Shopping Centre.
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Plans lodged with Bathurst Regional Council detail the proposal to convert the existing L-shaped shopping centre into a U-shape with a new wing where the centre’s car park currently stands.
The new two-storey wing will feature retail space on the ground floor and a 105-place child care centre upstairs, accessed by a new lift.
The existing IGA supermarket would more than double its floor space to around 1200 square metres and a vacant block beside the centre would be converted to a car park.
A statement of environmental effects lodged with council says the redevelopment would cater for the growing population to the west of the city.
“A redevelopment is proposed to enhance the status of the centre and to establish it as a shopping and convenience hub for West Bathurst,” it states.
“The redeveloped centre will include an expanded IGA supermarket, medical centre, childcare centre, takeaway food outlets, and increased retail tenancies, including an enlarged pharmacy.
“A new entrance onto Wark Parade will be created and off-street parking resources will be reconfigured and increased.”
The proposed redevelopment is just the latest in a series of upgrades at the satellite shopping centre since it opened about 20 years ago.
Initially there were five shops and a 240 square metre supermarket.
Two years later another three shops were added, the supermarket space was doubled to 440 square metres and a bottleshop and medical centre were introduced to the site.
Extensive roadworks in 2010 created a new access to the centre in preparation for this redevelopment.
The statement of environmental effects describes the proposed staging of the redevelopment, starting with the construction of the new car park on the existing vacant lot.
The northern bank of the existing car park would then be levelled for the construction of the new retail space and car park before work starts on expanding the supermarket.