Bunnings Warehouse has explained a little more of the nuts and bolts of its massive $59 million development at Gungahlin while also revealing it wants to expand its Tuggeranong and Fyshwick stores and look west for more investment.
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For a start, the Gungahlin mega-store is not just a shed.
Bunnings general manager of property Andrew Marks said space for other retail outlets had also been incorporated into the design at Gungahlin but still conceded "it is a lot of money".
"There's no doubt it's an expensive building, even from a Bunnings perspective," he said.
But it's not the biggest Bunnings in Australia, nor even the most expensive.
"It would be in the top percentile but it wouldn't necessarily be the most expensive," Mr Marks said. "We've done some pretty big, multi-level projects in metropolitan Sydney where we're bigger again than this."
Mr Marks said the $59 million project at Gungahlin included the land costs, the Bunnings outlet and all its stock and fittings and another 5000 square metres of retail space to be leased out to other tenants, likely to include large and small retail, food, community uses and government.
The overall building is 23,000 square metres and will see the retail areas developed under the Bunnings store, which is 17,000 square metres.
"It's a single-storey Bunnings but because of the lay of the land, it almost talks to ground level at one end but is hanging out of the ground at the other end," Mr Marks said.
"So part of the urban design requirement was that we have a high-street-style, retail shopfront on the Hibberson Street side and that sort of enabled us to do something a little bit unique and created 12 or 14 tenancies which we're going to lease out to other parties.
"We've got interest in all of the space and we're at different stages of negotiation with lots of different tenants."
Mr Marks said the Bunnings development at Gungahlin also included the main warehouse, cafe, indoor playground, landscape supplies yard and outdoor nursery.
He said previous Bunnings' estimates that 520 jobs would be created in the construction phase had been overstated and it was probably closer to 300. But he said while Bunnings would create 180 jobs once opened, the other retail would also generate more employment.
The chain always wanted a presence in Gungahlin
"Our network is still being put in place in the Canberra area and I think our nearest stores are in Fyshwick and Belconnen so with the amount of growth that's happening in the north of the city, it made sense for us to be there," he said.
"It will affect our existing stores a little bit but it will save people driving a long way to shop us."
Mr Marks said Bunnings would also be lodging a development application "in the near future" to expand its Tuggeranong store by an extra 30 per cent or 4000 square metres at a cost of $8 million to $10 millon. The expansion, if approved, would see the store extended across existing car parking, with any lost parking replaced underneath the new extension.
The company was also keen to expand or replace its Fyshwick Bunnings with a possible outcome, pending approvals and land sales, shifting the store a little further to the east and south to land yet to be released near the Canberra Outlet Centre.
"There are also a couple of holes left on the western side of town where we're less represented and they're hard to get in over there but in time we'll plan to do something in that market," Mr Marks said.
The Gungahlin Bunnings was due to open later this year.
