WITH construction as good as finished at the Westpoint shopping centre, it's going to get a lot easier to find tenants to fill the vacancies.
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The $10 million expansion of the complex commenced in late 2017.
Under the project, an entirely new wing was built on the northern side of site, a second new building was constructed for food retailers, D'Aquino's and the chemist were relocated, a childcare centre built in the new wing and car parking facilities more than doubled.
Relocating D'Aquino's made way for an expansion of IGA and the first stage of that was opened to the public just before Christmas.
Stage two is expected to be done by the end of March.
The only issue is that many of the shops within the complex remain vacant, the issue exacerbated by the closure of the newsagent, which was originally meant to relocate to the new wing.
Leasing for the complex is being handled by Raine and Horne Bathurst and Bathurst Real Estate.
Principal of the latter, Michael Whittaker, said the two agencies are working together on a marketing plan for Westpoint.
He expects it will be easier to find tenants for people now that almost all of the construction work had finished, particularly with IGA close to being fully operational.
On top of that, Mr Whittaker said the complex offered a good range of existing tenants that could draw people in from the surrounding residential areas, with about 15,000 people in the catchment.
"We've been through a tough-ish patch retail-wise and sometimes it's a little bit hard to build confidence when something is under construction," Mr Whittaker said.
"So now that it's complete and people can see the finished product, I think that should give people really good reason to be optimistic that if they did open a new business, [Westpoint] has the footprint to help it succeed."
He said there were a lot of possibilities, but he could see a bakery, takeaway food business or a beauty salon doing particularly well in the complex.