By BRIDGET COOK
CASEY could soon be home to a new Masters Home Improvement and other speciality retailers with the planned $45 million expansion of the Cranbourne Homemaker Centre.
The City of Casey has received a request from centre developers BB Retail Capital to extend the Cranbourne Homemaker Centre along Thompson Roads.
At last week’s Casey council meeting, council agreed to exhibit the amended Cranbourne Development Plan to facilitate the expansion.
The council report said the extension would create a number of benefits for the community including up to 174 full time jobs during construction and 395 jobs once open.
BB Retail Capital head of development and acquisitions Michael Winnem said a lease had been signed by Masters to be a part of the extension if it is approved to go ahead.
“The proposed area of expansion is approximately 24,000 square metres and Masters would take up about 14,000 of that,” he said.
“The only tenant signed up at the moment is Masters.
“We are in talks with a number of other tenants about the remaining space.”
Mr Winnem said they wanted to expand the Cranbourne centre for a number of reasons.
“It’s obviously a growing population down there,” he said.
“The existing centre also has very good patronage and there’s a demand for this type of amenity there.
“We have also had interest from a number of retailers who want to be there to service that population.”
Mr Winnem said the plans were in the early stages.
“It’s all still subject to the approval process,” he said.
“We have got a number of steps to go through still before this can all go ahead.”
The Cranbourne Homemaker Centre is currently home to more than 30 stores including Bunnings, Harvey Norman, The Good Guys, JB Hi Fi and Officeworks.
City of Casey mayor Amanda Stapledon said the possible expansion was very exciting for Cranbourne and City of Casey.
“Our key focus is economic development and this is exactly the kind of business we hope to attract and support so we can keep local residents working locally,” she said.
“It will also ensure we have a range of quality retail outlets to access in our municipality.”
The News’ Facebook followers welcomed the news.
“Wow a Masters in the same complex as Bunnings, that would be a price war,” Michele Halsall said.
Lynette White said she would like to see a Chemist Warehouse included in the extension.
