The end is near for the clay roof tiles and potholes of Westfield shopping town in Camillo with construction starting on the Aldi store this week and a revamp of the entire shopping centre due to start within months.
With the slab going down yesterday for the centre’s expansion Camillo looked set to have one of the first Aldi’s in operation in the entire state.
Westfield shopping town centre owner Talha Patel said they were on track for Aldi to open mid-2016 while the revamp of the rest of the centre would be completed in the new year.
Mr Patel said the revamp works included new cladding to hide the old clay tile roof of the centre, installing a new interior roof, fresh paint and a $1.5 million upgrade to the entire carpark.
“We’re going to match that same cladding (being installed on the Aldi extension) and hide the old roof with a fake façade which will give it a fresh look,” he said.
“The whole car park is getting redone.
“One way of doing it is just putting a whole new layer on top so it will last for four or five years or whatever, what we’re doing actually is we’re removing the whole base and redoing the whole car park, everything.
“If everything goes according to plan by March we would have all that ready.”
Mr Patel said Aldi moving in was the best thing to happen to the centre because it would attract more tenants but he stressed the IGA would stay.
“The IGA is staying there, we had to come up with a model where IGA could stay because people here are very neighbourhood conscious, they like their neighbourhood shop,” he said.
“Aldi was the right mix, they can compliment each other.
“Now it’s here I can get new tenants in and get a better range of tenancies to the customers, this can become your neighbourhood shopping centre which is what it was a long time ago.
Mr Patel apologised to the community for taking so long to fix things like the potholes but said it would be worth it.
“That’s part of the reason why we never looked at the car park,” he said.
“There wasn’t any point in us spending bits of money here and there when it’s going to be ripped up and I apologise that it’s taken so long.
“Hopefully a fresh car park, more security, new shops and refurbished shopping centre will give customers the confidence to come back and shop here.”
Mr Patel said the centre would be rebranded as Champion Lakes shopping centre when Aldi opened.
The centre had been the subject of controversy in the past with Camillo residents upset at crime issues and car park maintenance issues.
