Queensgate Shopping Centre (formerly Westfield Queensgate) is a medium sized

shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre ( Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known colle ...

in central Lower Hutt,

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The centre first opened in 1986, and underwent a large scale redevelopment that was completed in August 2006. The centre features over 130 speciality stores.

History and development

The area was formerly a residential area. The houses were demolished in the mid-60s to mid-70s to make way for a transport centre. The centre opened in 1986. The centre refurbished in 1991 and was expanded. It was purchased by Westfield in 1999. Between 2004 and 2006 the mall had a big expansion doubling the size of the centre with a bigger carpark, more shops and a new

Event Cinemas Greater Union Organisation Pty Ltd, trading as Event Cinemas, Greater Union, GU Film House, Moonlight Cinema and Birch Carroll & Coyle (BCC Cinemas), is the largest movie exhibitor in Australia and New Zealand, with over 140 cinema complexes c ...

multiplex. The

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

supermarket that is overtaken by the carpark now has now moved south-east of the mall under

The Warehouse The Warehouse Group (TWG) was founded by Stephen Tindall in 1982, and is the largest retail group operating in New Zealand. It is a corporate group that consists of The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, Torpedo7, Noel Leeming, 1-day and TheMar ...

. The centre has a catchment area of 375,030+ people. The centre has a footfall of over 8 million people per annum. The centre's floor space is and the centre has an annual turnover of NZ$202.5 million. Queensgate Shopping Centre cinema demolition, December 2016

Queensgate Shopping Centre cinema demolition, December 2016

Thirteen structurally separate buildings make up the centre. Following the

2016 Kaikoura earthquake Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17 *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film d ...

, the entire shopping centre closed for urgent safety inspections, partially reopening eleven days later. One building in the northeast corner of the mall, containing the Event Cinema and part of the carpark, was deemed structurally unsafe and was demolished. During the deconstruction of the northeast corner, half of the stores remained closed. The mall was completely reopened on 6 April 2017. In 2017, a car dealer opened a showroom in the mall, complete with cars for a brief period.

Cinema and carpark rebuild

In 2019, rebuilding of the carpark and cinema commenced. On September 17 2019, Event Cinema were confirmed to be the new cinema complex operator. It was also announced that the region's first VMAX movie theatre would open in the site. It is due for completion in December 2022.

Anchor Tenants

Queensgate has three anchor tenants currently, and will have four when Event Cinema reopens in late 2021. Farmers has a two storey store in the centre of the mall.

is on the ground floor of the mall and was rebranded after originally being Woolworths when the mall was redeveloped. In October 2017, H&M opened a two storey store, their first in Wellington. In December 2022,

reopened after being demolished due to the 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake

Transport

The centre is located on the corner of Queens Drive and Bunny Street in the centre of Lower Hutt. It is also the location of a major bus interchange (known as ''Lower Hutt Queensgate'') with buses going to

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Uta) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. Geography The Upper Hutt city centre lies approximately 26 km north-e ...

, Waterloo Interchange,

Petone Petone (Māori: ''Pito-one''), a large suburb of Lower Hutt, Wellington, stands at the southern end of the Hutt Valley, on the northern shore of Wellington Harbour. The Māori name means "end of the sand beach". Europeans first settled in P ...

Wainuiomata Wainuiomata () is a large suburb of Lower Hutt, in the Wellington Region of New Zealand's North Island. Origin of name The word 'Wainui-o-mata' is a Māori name made up of the words Wai = water, Nui = big, O = of, and Mata – which could refer ...

and

Wellington City Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...

. The centre is also a short walking distance from

Melling railway station Melling railway station is the terminal station on the single track Melling Line in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. The single platform station serves the suburb of Melling. The station is served by Metlink's electric multiple unit trains. Hist ...

which has rail servies to

via

Alicetown Alicetown is a central suburb of Lower Hutt located at the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand. The suburb is situated north of the major suburb of Petone and west of the Lower Hutt CBD. Its boundaries are the Ewen Bridge that crosses the ...

. The centre has over 1,855 car park spaces.

Culture

The centre is known for the youths often seen frequenting the southern bus stop. A method used in deterring them is the use of classical music played through loudspeakers.

References

External links

Queensgate Shopping Centre homepage
{{Shopping centres in New Zealand Shopping centres in New Zealand Shopping malls established in 1986 Buildings and structures in Lower Hutt 1980s architecture in New Zealand