Eastpoint is set to rise again but this time around the shopping development proposal has moved down the Paradise end of the Tamworth central business district and gives Woolworths and Dan Murphy’s a city highway frontage.

The new plans for the old Eastpoint shopping centre will put two of the most aggressive national retailers on a big block bordered by Peel, Roderick and Murray streets and Byrnes Ave. It’s a high-visibility traffic route, bringing about half the southside commuters into the centre of the city and most of the New England Highway traffic through the Paradise end of town.

A new application for the Eastpoint development has been lodged with Tamworth Regional Council and because of its near-$18million price tag will be determined by the regional joint planning panel.

The new centre is estimated to employ about 150 workers, mostly young people and flexible work times, and provide about 40 jobs in construction.

The second Eastpoint plan follows the original concept first unveiled in 2011 by developer Theo Zannes that would have seen the Woolies/Dan Murphy’s liquor outlet centre built on the site of the CitySider Motel on Marius St. 

That project stalled for months while Zannes tried to find a buyer for the development and finally was dumped. 

But a second Eastpoint has emerged, this time with a price tag of about $17million and on land once a council park and the former Westons stock feed factory.

The new centre will be built above and beside the Red Rooster fast food restaurant which currently occupies the corner site on Murray and Peel streets.

It will be built across at least five different property lots with frontage to three main traffic routes.

It’s a site of nearly 18,000 squares with a projected retail area of just over 7700 squares and a car parking area of nearly 9000 squares, estimated to take a surface level car park of 273 spaces for shoppers and an underground space for nine for staff.

The plans show provision for the supermarket to be just over 4300 squares and for the liquor outlet to be nearly 1300 squares.

To get some sort of perspective of that floor space and size for the consumer, the new $12.5million Coles Southgate shopping centre, opened last year, is a total 4000 squares. The new Aldi, also opened in 2012, is 1500 squares and its neighbour JB Hi-Fi is about 1000 squares.

According to the documents lodged with the DA, which comprise about 20 different sections covering environmental, parking and traffic, drainage, loading dock layouts, survey plans, external building finishes, cost estimates and economic reports, the centre will provide more parks than required under traffic authority guidelines dictate and the volumes of traffic would have little effect on current traffic levels or add to any existing parking or traffic conditions.

The proposal argues that its parking space allowance is adequate at 282 spots and will meet peak parking demands despite a Tamworth Regional Council requirement for some 353 car parking spaces under its development control plans.

The developers say the main vehicle access into the centre will be off Byrnes Ave with two driveways off the Roderick and Murray streets end, but that the avenue would also be widened to nine metres on the Roderick St end so two exit lanes would empty from it onto Roderick. Byrnes Ave is six metres wide with two-way traffic. 

Large delivery trucks, including 19-metre-long articulated trucks, will enter the complex off Peel St, and according to the DA papers, there will be up to four of those bigger trucks each day and no more than another four smaller vans or trucks each day to the supermarket and two or less to the liquor store.

Traffic counts provided by the developer claim a high of 240 vehicles an hour along Peel St adjacent to the site in the afternoon peak hour. 

The highest volumes of about 300 vehicles in that hour were recorded along Marius St while there were no more than 100 cars along Roderick and less than 20 along Byrnes Ave.

The impact of the proposed development on neighbouring roads would be about 740 additional vehicles during that afternoon peak hour, but the developer contends that volume would have little effect on the current levels of service on those approach roads. 

The documents also suggest that a taxi rank should be provided in Roderick St and that a bus service should be provided.

The planned development is on exhibition at TRC, but only for another week. Submissions are invited from the public.

AN ECONOMIC impact assessment for Eastpoint draws a number of conclusions in relation to demand and the impacts on the current retail landscape.

It predicts population growth is set to continue in the Tamworth region, with about 67,000 people housed in some 29,000 dwellings by 2026.

Food expenditure would be a significant part of a household retail bill with supermarket and liquor a big share of that.

The economic report says retail expenditure is expected to grow by about $60million in this area between now and 2021, creating demand for more retail floor space, and that there is a sufficient demand for another major supermarket in Tamworth

The report claims a population of 60,000 people supports seven to eight ‘full-line’ supermarkets, and there are four full-line supermarkets already in Tamworth, together with two Supa IGAs and an Aldi.

A new Woolworths would provide a new eastern gateway to the CBD, the report says, and consolidate retailing in the core business zone, complementing existing Coles and Aldi supermarkets. The arrival of Dan Murphy’s would bring the first big box liquor store, “improving competiveness, brands and product ranges."