Westfield Chermside, Zara Defit and Reconfiguration
Scope of work
The work was to defit and remove the Zara tenancy from Chermside Westfield, which was a 2000 m² tenancy over two levels, and reconfigure the space into five smaller tenancies and rear storage rooms.
Works Included
The work was done in three stages over a 9-month period to work in with lease agreements. Stage 1 was to take possession of the entire space, remove the escalators within the tenancy, enclose the hole in the suspended slab, and defit the entire ground floor. We then needed to modify the rear of the tenancy by creating and rearranging access to the existing lift within the tenancy that was to become a shared lift for future tenancies above. Once this was complete, we handed the ground floor over to Cotton On for their new shop fit-out.
- Stage 2 was to build an intertenancy wall on the upper level to split the space into two sides and reconfigure it into two new tenancies of approximately 300m2 each, to create temporary space using the existing fit-out. We also built a new rear wall to take back space at the rear and built a new corridor and tenant storage cages. The 2 temporary shops were then leased out for a period of 6 months up until Christmas.
- Stage 3 was to take back these two shops, fully defit this space, split the tenancy up into four new retail shops for permanent leases and amalgamate with the new corridor and existing lift for loading doc access. The spaces were handed over to the tenants’ shop-fitters for fit-out and our works were complete.
FIT-OUT/WORK SPECIFICATIONS
| Client | Location | Size | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zara | Chermside Westfield Brisbane | Works staged in to three separate time lines over a total of nine months |
CHALLENGES
The challenges we faced were mostly handling and controlling noisy and dusty works in the operating shopping centre and working in a live environment.
We also faced challenges with the removal of the escalators and infilling the concrete slab and building the structural steel elements designed by the engineers on suspended slabs in an operating shopping centre environment. Keeping the public and contractors safe and keeping the noise and dust levels to a minimum whilst working to a very tight timeline and high standards to Westfield’s.
OUTCOME AND IMPACT
The project was a success and we hit our targets on all three stages. The client was happy with how we managed the project and kept discrete with minimal impact to their shoppers and retailers alike.