Centre City Shopping Complex (1988)

Centre City was opened on 18 October 1988 by New Plymouth Mayor David Lean and Captain Mark Phillips, then husband of Princess Anne.

In the mid-1980s the New Plymouth City Council made an active decision to see a commercial retail development go ahead on this site. The council already owned some land in the block but needed to buy up land to the west of Currie Street. After securing ownership of the remaining land it was on-sold to Foodstuffs (Wellington) Co-op Society for what it had paid, plus costs.

David Lean said at the time that it was a pre-emptive move to prevent Foodstuffs locating themselves in Bell Block or Brixton and thereby endangering the vitality of the CBD.

Construction took 22 months at a cost of $22 million. Anchor tenants were Pak 'n Save and Farmers, complemented by up to 50 specialty shops. Please click here for a copy of the TNL supplement published on 18 October 1988 to mark the opening.

The architect for the project was Roger Walker. Carson Mills Project Management of Wellington co-ordinated the project using mainly local contractors. The project manager was John Dunn and construction manager Doug Frew.

The Taranaki Daily News reported on 10 November 2021 that a seismic assessment had rated Centre City at less than 20% of the new building standards. While this led to some tenants leaving (Spark, One New Zealand), the complex is still trading as normal. (2023)

Related documents:

Massive new retailing area planned (Taranaki Herald 9 July 1985)

Seaward scene changes (Daily News 23 June 1988)

Centre City sale surprise (Daily News 30 August 1994)

From Currie to Centre City (Taranaki Daily News 6 May 2012)

Substantial change a central theme (Taranaki Daily News 29 December 2012)

From the archives (Taranaki Daily News 2 August 2014)