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

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

in central

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt () is a list of cities in New Zealand, city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropoli ...

Wellington Wellington 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 third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

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

Farmers A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mi ...

JB Hi-Fi JB Hi-Fi Limited is an Australian consumer electronics retail company. It is publicly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its headquarters are located in Southbank, Melbourne, Victoria. As of June 2024, the company operates 330 sto ...

, H&M, Bed Bath and Beyond,

The Warehouse A warehouse is a storage facility. Warehouse or The Warehouse may also refer to: Buildings and places Canada * The Warehouse (Toronto), a defunct nightclub in Toronto, Ontario * The Warehouse Studio, a recording facility and photography studio i ...

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 ...

and Event Cimenas.

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, Moonlight Cinema and Birch Carroll & Coyle (BCC Cinemas), is the largest movie exhibitor in Australia and New Zealand, with over 140 cinema complexes currently operati ...

multiplex. The

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

. 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. Thirteen structurally separate buildings make up the centre. Following the

2016 Kaikōura earthquake The 2016 Kaikōura earthquake was a 7.8 earthquake in the South Island of New Zealand that occurred two minutes after midnight on 14 November 2016 Time in New Zealand, NZDT (11:02 on 13 November UTC). earthquake rupture, Ruptures occurred on ...

, 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 17 September 2019, Event Cinemas 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 was reopened in December 2022.

Anchor Tenants

Queensgate has four anchor tenants.

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

Transport

The centre is located on the corner of Queens Drive and Bunny Street in the centre of

. It is also the location of a major bus interchange (known as ''Lower Hutt Queensgate'') with buses going to

Upper Hutt Upper Hutt () is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand and one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. History Upper Hutt is in an area originally known as Orongo ...

, Waterloo Interchange,

Petone Petone (Māori language, Māori: ''Pito-one'') is a large suburb of Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand. It stands at the southern end of the Hutt Valley, on the northern shore of Wellington Harbour. Europeans first settled in Petone in Januar ...

Wainuiomata Wainuiomata () is a large Commuter town, dormitory suburb of Lower Hutt, in the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area in New Zealand. Its population was estimated as being as of with a density of 1,600 people ...

and

Wellington City Wellington is Capital of New Zealand, 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 List of cities in New Zealand, third-largest city ...

. 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. The Mel ...

which has rail services 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 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 Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

played through loudspeakers.

References

External links

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