Official re-opening of Caringbah Super Centre to be held following $34M upgrade

The centre, on Taren Point Road, has expanded to have a total of 25 outlets, including six new stores and a car wash.

Eleven existing stores were refurbished and there are more family-friendly amenities and new food and coffee options.

The additions are:

The name has also been changed back to Caringbah Super Centre, which it was called when it opened 24 years ago and continued to be known by many shoppers after rebranding to Caringbah Homemaker and Home.

An official re-opening ceremony, with a ribbon to be cut by mayor Steve Simpson, will be held on Thursday (October 29).

Centre owner Aventus Group said this would be followed by "a Grand Opening Weekend of retail offers, giveaways, and free family activities" on the weekend of October 31 to November 1.

Chief executive Darren Holland said the centre had undergone "a total transformation" and would "set the benchmark in large format retail in Australia".

"We bought the asset 10 years ago from AMP," he said.

"It was really run down and tired, and needed a major upgrade.

"The community of the shire are very house proud and we need to be house proud as well.

"I am very proud of our team and I thank shoppers for their patience.

"The work has being going on for 12 months and through Covid and we still delivered it on time and on budget."

Mr Holland said the project had been completed at a time when there was strong demand for household and lifestyle products.

"Australians are spending more time working, learning and being entertained at home," he said. "We are also not travelling overseas.

"There is a huge redirection of that expenditure into the home and lifestyle.

"Our retailers are seeing strong results, with Harvey Norman, J B Hi Fi and Adairs all reporting very strong sales growth in the last five months.

"Traffic into our stores is higher than it was pre-Covid. We are attracting 42 million visitors a year across 20 centres and that's a million more than last year."

Blaine Callard, chief execuitive of Freedom, which has been in the centre from the outset, said, "Our rebrand and new store design has exceeded expectations".

"We plan to use the design as a basis for future store refurbishments across Australia," he said.