The $30 million refurbishment of Wollongong Central will add 15 new names to the complex's store directory, with most shops to open by Sunday.
Only a handful of the new additions in the shopping complex's northern wing will not be trading from November 1, weeks before the development was initially forecast to finish.
With new signage recently unveiled, many of the new tenants are now common knowledge, however additions yet to be announced include the trendy T-shirt shop T-Bar and the computer store Game.
Up to 25 stores are expected to open by Sunday ahead of the beginning of a program of entertainment, sales and promotions to herald the refurbishment.
Another 19 shops have been relocated, most obviously Best and Less, now standing in the old Franklins site, and Priceline, which will move upstairs to where Uncle Pete's Toys used to be.
Development manager Steven Turner said the new fit-outs had surpassed expectation.
"We expected that a large number of (tenants) would complete new fit-outs, but there were far more than we originally anticipated and they are of a better standard," he said.
With temporary kiosks and further small changes planned, the shopping complex has gone from advertising "more than 140 speciality shops" to "more than 150" shops.
Eight original tenants have not returned, including a number of food stores deliberately excluded when plans for the West Keira development, on Keira St, were being drafted.
That development is now in limbo due to the global financial crisis.
"Ultimately the plans that we have approved for the development of the West Keira side contained a full supermarket and fresh food offer and ... we didn't want to start replicating," Mr Turner said.
Source: www.illawarramercury.com.au
