Everton Plaza

When Reds Group purchased Everton Plaza it was nearly 50 years old and incredibly run down. However, they saw that the centre had a core of strong trading tenants: small retailers who were part of the fabric of the local community and had a faithful following. Rather than doing what most developers would do - knocking the site down and building a huge Coles - the design brief was to create a different type of vision, a-typical of a standard shopping centre, that focussed on locals and small producers to create somewhere the community wanted to go and spend time.

Rather than going to an architect, Reds Group briefed a designer, who would think about customer experience and could work directly with tenants on their fit-outs. The design retained the centre’s original ground work and the site’s heritage. Reds Group worked with each tenant to create bespoke retail spaces that would support and create long term sustainability for each business. The back of house area, where refuse was stored, would be transformed into a bustling laneway with food offerings. This solution created a place for the community to come together that would encourage engagement and support local businesses.

Everton Plaza has become a place for the community to come together and engage. Entertainment is no longer a $60 Uber ride away and it has ignited a sense of community pride and improved the night-time safety of the suburb. The precinct has secured the future of small local businesses. Sales have increased by over $1mil. F&B tenants are doing 50-100% better than expected. An international tech firm will be opening an office on the site. Once established this will bring jobs and investment. The reuse of existing buildings was a conscious choice to reduce the development’s environmental impact.

The composition of the site truly showcases why Everton Plaza’s design is so unique: a vibrant precinct with a large scale commercial tenant who will provide jobs for the local community, combined with retail, every day services and F&B that will create a self sufficient eco system, providing so much for the local community. The process of securing the anchor tenants was truly innovative: designers analysed the site to understand which spaces would be bested suited for each type of retailer. They then worked with each tenant to ensure the design of that space best suited their needs. As a result, the physical environment and architecture provides genuine human scale and sense of space - a place people love to be that adds value to their daily lives. This facilitates customer connection and recognition amongst the retailers and regular customers. Social media is embedded into the design of the precinct: greenery, art, graffiti and an old tram shell transformed into the public toilets created a place that touched all the senses and was highly ‘Instagrammable’. The precinct app allows visitors attending events (e.g. the outdoor cinema) to order food from the F&B operators.