Tooronga Village Shopping Centre

Stockland Tooronga

Tooronga Village former entry sign
Location	Glen Iris, Victoria, Australia
No. of stores and services	29
No. of anchor tenants	2

Stockland Tooronga (previously known as Tooronga Village Shopping Centre) is a residential, office and retail centre in the suburb of Glen Iris in the municipality of Boroondara.

It formerly referred solely to a shopping centre, which temporarily closed in March 2008. The mixed-use redevelopment by covers the former shopping centre site and part of the adjacent former brickworks site. The redeveloped shopping centre re-opened in August 2010 and now has 22 shops, cafes and restaurants in addition to anchor tenants Coles Supermarkets and 1st Choice Liquor Superstore.

The shopping centre dated back to the 1960s (Coles traded there from 1968) but there was little development of the centre since the 1970s. In December 1985, developers Hudson Conway paid $1.25m for the adjacent former brickworks, despite a proposed open-space order on the site approved by the former Hawthorn Council ten years prior. Hudson Conway proposed extending the shopping centre into the brickworks site, substantially expanding the centre and including a discount department store. By 1990, Hudson Conway had varied its proposal several times to include potential combinations of a commercial centre, offices and hotel blocks. The proposals met with substantial local opposition led by the Tooronga Action Group, and anti-development candidates were voted into Hawthorn Council. In 1991 a site-specific development zone was designated for the site, which allowed for more modest development comprising an office complex on the existing shopping centre site, and retail space on the former brickworks site.

Hudson Conway failed to develop the site, and sold its half of the shopping centre site to Coles Myer in 1995. Pacific Shopping Centres subsequently sold its 50% share to Coles Myer in 1997. In 2000, Coles Myer, which had opened its head office on land immediately adjacent in 1986, had plans for a major retail and entertainment development of the precinct but never proceeded with them. Finally, developers agreed in 2004 to purchase the site from Coles Myer (subject to planning approval) for $30m and proceeded with plans for a mixed-use development, comprising residential, retail and office use. The Victorian State Government upset local residents by taking planning control away from Boroondara Council and approving the project.