THE $10 million redevelopment of the Westpoint Shopping Centre is going to deliver a real change to the feel of the suburb.
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Currently the Westpoint centre is a satellite shopping centre in every sense, a mirror image of the Trinity Heights Shopping Centre on the other side of town.
The strengths of both shopping centres has always been what they have offered as much as what they have not.
The centres were built for convenience to cater for a very specific market, the homes that have built up around them in their thousands over the past decade or so.
They have not been too small, where they would struggle to provide a reason for residents to visit and spend their money, and they have not been too big, where they would begin to replace the CBD as a destination for socialising.
But that may be about to change.
Not only will the Westpoint redevelopment feature a much-expanded supermarket and massive car park that is clearly designed for further expansion in the future, the Western Advocate reveals today there will also be a Domino’s Pizza outlet.
That’s a significant development.
The arrival of a major chain store at the Westpoint centre says a lot about the expected continued growth of the suburb, and it’s not hard to see why.
Bathurst Regional Council, in particular, has been an active player in the real estate market in both Windradyne and Eglinton, releasing hundreds of new lots through its ballot system in recent years.
There have also been private developments looking over the Macquarie River and plans are before council now to create more than 200 new lots behind Eglinton Public School.
More houses means more people and that all means more opportunities for businesses to tap into a market that does not want to make the trip all the way into town.
And so the obvious next question is, how long until planning at Eglinton follows suit?
Areas to the north of Bathurst continue to be popular among families and a single corner store is not enough to meet the demand.
The people of Eglinton have been crying out for years for their own satellite shopping centre and the success of both Westpoint and Trinity Heights must offer a blueprint of how it can be done successfully.
As the city grows, the services must grow with it.