Centro Toombul
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| Location | Toombul, Brisbane Australia |
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| Coordinates | 27°24′30″S 153°03′40″E / 27.40833°S 153.06111°ECoordinates: 27°24′30″S 153°03′40″E / 27.40833°S 153.06111°E |
| Opening date | 11 October 1967 |
| Developer | Mirvac |
| Management | Mirvac |
| Owner | Mirvac |
| No. of stores and services | 146 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 5 |
| Total retail floor area | 47,034 m² |
| No. of floors | 2 |
| Website | toombulcentre |
Toombul Shopping Centre is a suburban shopping centre located in the locality of Toombul which is part of Nundah, a suburb of the City of Brisbane in the state of Queensland, Australia. The centre is currently anchored by Target and Kmart discount department stores, Coles supermarket, Aldi Food Store, an 8-screen Event Cinema and more than 140 specialty stores including Lincraft, Witchery, Sportsgirl and Pillow Talk.
The centre opened on 11 October 1967 by The Westfield Group. Over the years it has been remodelled from its original form with several extensions, the most recent being the Aldi supermarket and Fresh Life fresh food mall in 2006 and new food court and Target in 2011. Toombul was the largest shopping centre on Brisbane's northside until Westfield Chermside's redevelopment in 1999-2000.
In the mid 1960s, The Westfield Group was looking to expand interstate into Queensland. Co-founder of Westfield, Frank Lowy sent his brother John and an engineer to the state to scout for potential sites in Brisbane. A local real estate agent, Donald Petrie, showed them the current site, located on a flood plain with a creek flowing through it in a growing area of the city. Later, the Westfield founders travelled to Brisbane to inspect the site. Realising the commercial potential of the area, the company purchased the property. To overcome the flooding issues, Westfield employed experts at a local university to develop a plan. The solution was to fill and raise one half of the site to build the centre and construct a bridge across the creek.
There were also problems finding a department store to anchor the centre and filling the specialty retail spaces at the centre. As Toombul was close to the Chermside Shopping Centre, which was anchored by a department store, other department stores were cautious about opening so close. Another problem was Westfield was an unknown developer outside of New South Wales, making it hard to attract retailers. Frank Lowy and Donald Petrie resorted to walking the streets of Brisbane's CBD to find retailers to occupy the centre. It paid off as the centre was 100% leased at opening. Due to Westfield's relationship with Coles (having built some Coles stores in Sydney), the retailer was committed from the beginning of the development to opening a store at the centre.
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