Armstrong Creek's first retail, service and community hub opens

Local business people will shine at the official opening of The Village Warralily on November 17, heralding a commercial coming of age for the rapidly growing Armstrong Creek residential area.

Warralily residents are among new specialty business operators helping bring convenience, connections and hundreds of jobs to its centrepiece The Village Warralily Shopping Centre.

The retail centre bordering Barwon Heads Road and Central Boulevard fulfils Warralily’s vision as a welcoming, vibrant town attraction at the heart of a master-planned precinct offering sport and recreation, education, childcare and more.

Formal opening of the hub will mark a significant milestone in stage one development which has already attracted an initial $50 million investment and responds to need for amenities in one of the region’s fastest-growing residential areas.

“This is all about enhancing lifestyles and providing employment in a location which already has so much to offer,” developer APD Projects’ Tarek Abdulnour said.

“More than 5,500 people already call Warralily home and it will be the long-term destination for many more”.

“Opening of The Village Warralily Shopping Centre is such an important progression. We’re proud to be the first Armstrong Creek retail centre, offering such diversity, and we’re proud that so many locally owned and run businesses have joined us.”

The Shopping Centre has Woolworths as an anchor tenant, and 15 retail and food outlets bordering a leafy town square plus office spaces, medical and dental clinic, a chemist and a gym. 

A $6m McDonalds Restaurant and $5m 7-Eleven fuel and convenience store are both set to open beside the centre in late 2017.

Construction of an ALDI supermarket is scheduled to start in 2018, a neighbouring all abilities primary school is scheduled to open for first term in 2018 and work on an adjoining City of Greater Geelong and state Government funded sport and recreation precinct with pavilion is underway.

Pioneering locally owned-and-run businesses include Warralily Cockatoo neighbourhood café and pizza bar, Lily Blue Boutique fashion store, Sullies Kiosk Café and Peppered Goat healthy take-away food, whose owners Kate Redfern and Simon Fawcett are Warralily locals.

“We can walk to work!” Ms Redfern said.  "There are just so many beaches, and it’s just a really nice place to live without being too far away from the city.”

Having worked internationally for several years on private yachts, they promise to bring world flavours to their roasted meats and salads. Now settled close to Mr Fawcett’s home Torquay they plan to contribute to community they love.

“We wanted to have a business here, we can see the potential, we want to hire locals … we just want to support the local community,” Ms Redfern said.

Hundreds of jobs will grow from The Village Warralily, with 120 at Woolworths alone, about 100 positions at McDonald’s, 15 at 7-Eleven and more at the smaller businesses, all focused on providing opportunities for locals.

The Village Warralily Shopping Centre is designed by award-winning architects Clarke Hopkins Clarke with particular focus on creating an appealing ‘eat street’ heart with street furniture, feature lighting and sculptures enticing people to meet, linger and dine.

Building exterior finishes take cues from nearby coastal settings and the centre extends the strong environmental credentials of the Warralily community with use of environmentally-friendly cleaning materials, biodegradable bags, solar panels to power car park lighting and a Woolworths zero-waste pledge.

The Armstrong Creek residential corridor is forecast to deliver retail spending of up to $1.75 billion by 2031.  Creation of the Warralily community has generated more than 3300 direct and 3400 indirect jobs. At completion Warralily will have an estimated population of 15,000 residents.

Photo: The Village Warralily on the corner of Barwon Heads Road and Central Boulevard.