Westfield Booragoon

To visitors today, the original section of Garden City consists of everything from the Davy Street entrance (where HBF is currently situated, as of December 2019), to where one reaches the Garden City Newsagents. Garden City remained this way (with less than 100 shops) until 1983.

In the early 1980s, moves were afoot to upgrade Garden City to meet growing demand. The shopping centre's owners went after big-name department stores. One department store, retailer David Jones, had withdrawn from Western Australia, and so Boans (Western Australian predecessor to Myer) and Aherns (since taken over by David Jones) were selected to build two department stores. In 1983, the first major redevelopment went ahead at a cost of A$25 million.

In the next decade or so, demand increased, resulting in the first major expansion in over a decade. In 1994, the current food court was built. This was followed in 1995 with the cinema complex. The new floor space of 48,000 square metres (520,000 sq ft) was, however, still considered inadequate, and so a second expansion was planned. Westfield galleria Westfield marketplace Westfield centre Percy Westfield central jimmy’s

The second major redevelopment of Garden City commenced in January 1999 and was completed in October 2000. The main addition was a new eastern section with three parallel malls. Another big change was the creation of a new 'marketplace' featuring a brand new Coles store in the area previously occupied by K-Mart, and the re-location of K-Mart to the north-eastern corner of the shopping complex. A new bus station was constructed to replace the old one. Another new addition to the shopping centre was the $2.71 million Newmart discount supermarket which opened its doors on 3 October 2000, replacing a Coles outlet which had just relocated to the new 'marketplace' section of the redevelopment, creating 120 jobs for local people. Newmart would later go on to become an Action supermarket in time for Christmas 2003 and then a Woolworths supermarket in late 2005. This phase of expansion removed much of the ground level parking, replacing it with undercover and rooftop parking. Apart from minor modifications to several satellite buildings such as the demolition of a service station in 2005, the shopping centre has remained largely unchanged since.

After AMP shelved redevelopment plans in December 2020, it was announced that the Booragoon Civic Square Library, which sits next to Westfield Booragoon, would be demolished for redevelopment space of the centre.[3] Almost a year later, on 9 November 2021, funding for a $500 million dollar redevelopment to the centre were found.[4] On 28 November 2021, the proposed plans were publicly released, growing the centre to 109,375 square metres (1,177,300 sq ft) of retail space and making it the third largest shopping centre in Western Australia. The redevelopment was split into two stages and consisted of:

• First stage
  • New Fresh Food precinct, which included a relocated Woolworths supermarket, and a new Aldi.
  • Outdoor entertainment and dining precinct featuring over 15 restaurants and stores across two floors, including a 9 screen Hoyts cinema complex.
  • 53 additional stores, including a relocated food court.
  • Refurbished Myer and existing centre.
• Second stage
  • A new fashion mall featuring 45 new stores, including a relocated and expanded David Jones.

Plans were approved in late 2021, but received an extension to the end of 2023 to update the plans further. Along with this, AMP Capital sold its 50% share of the centre to Dexus.

Zara at Westfield Booragoon closed permanently late September 2021 to open at Karrinyup shopping centre as part of a major redevelopment of that centre.

On February 3, 2023, it was reported that plans were once again changed, this time on a larger scale. The total cost being up to nearly $800 million, and size being boosted up to 114,620 square metres (1,233,800 sq ft), which would make it the largest shopping centre in Western Australia.[5] Plans were approved the following week.

Following the finalisation of a transaction which gave AMP Capital 100% ownership of the centre, AMP announced on 25 October 2012 that it was planning to invest up to $400 million to upgrade Garden City. The centre is proposed to increase from its current approximate 72,000 m² (780,000 sq ft) to 120,000 m² (1,300,000 sq ft), making it the largest shopping centre in Western Australia. The redevelopment would result in a new David Jones, an additional supermarket, an additional discount department store, a new fresh food precinct and an outdoor dining area. Retail in the centre will remain largely single-level. Works on the redevelopment were expected to commence in early 2017 and take over 18 months to complete.[6] However, plans were cancelled before anything took off. AMP Capital gained approval for the new $750 million redevelopment for Garden City. Once completed, the centre would have been Perth's largest shopping centre with AMP Capital forecasting the Garden City trade area to grow from 480,000 m² (5,200,000 sq ft) to 555,000 m² (5,970,000 sq ft) by 2026.[7] However, after several delays and an eventual halt on planning and construction work, the plans were considered 'dead'.[8] Later in the same month, Scentre Group purchased 50% of the Garden City property for $575 million, which resulted in the centre being rebranded to Westfield Booragoon. With the purchase, Scentre Group decided to defer redevelopment plans for its other Westfield shopping centre, Westfield Innaloo, to continue plans to redevelop Westfield Booragoon.[9]

The main shopping complex can be broken into several main areas:

• the original precinct, centred at the sky-roof atrium which includes Woolworths (a former Action/Newmart store and the original site of Coles in the centre prior to its relocation to the 'marketplace' precinct in 2000, and its conversion to its $2.71 million replacement of its discount supermarket chain Newmart, and is also one of a handful of Woolies stores in Australia which still have the old 1980s-2000s logo)
• a food court, which leads to the cinema
• a 'marketplace' which includes Coles
• a central 'fashion mall' which includes many boutique outlets
• two diametrically opposite north–south wings leading to David Jones and Myer
• a northern and southern mall parallel to the central mall
• a north–south mall at the eastern end of the centre leading to K-Mart