New mall opens today at Brighton

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 13

New mall opens today at Brighton

Centrepoint, an exciting new shopping mall in the heart of the New Brighton shopping centre, opens today. It is the second major development in the area which Christchurch City Council plans to block off to traffic and open up as an exclusive pedestrian precinct on the lines of

many progressive exam* pies in Europe, Australia and the United States. Centrepoint occupies a site of over 700 sq. metres on the corner of Seaview Road and Union Street. Its developers, Research Build, Ltd, built the Barn complex next door and opened it in November last year.

The company is devel* oping a reputation for completing projects with prompt efficiency, and has been on the Centrepoint site for only four and a half months.

The old brick building in Seaview Road was called Hudson’s Building, and was occupied by John Burns, Ltd, and before that by Smart’s hardware store. The building was demolished and Centrepoint constructed on its site.

Mr Brian Wright, construction manager for the five-year-old Research Build, Ltd, company, said this week that the name Centrepoint was given to the .complex because they hoped it would be the centrepoint of the whole shopping area.

The city council has plans to block off traffic at the junction of Seaview Road and Union Street, late next year, re-directing it down Union Street to a proposed 300-space car park. No ordinary traffic will be permitted in Seaview Road between Union Street and Marine Parade. The three tenants of the new complex are Magnet Discount Centre, Pegasus Cycle Company, Ltd, and George Harris'Pharmacy. Mr John Cullington, branch manager of Magnet, has been in the hardware trade for many years.

Like its counterpart in the city, Magnet in New Brighton has permanent discounts. “By lowering our margins we hope to attract increased turnover

to compensate for the lower prices,” he says. Magnet has an attractive decor with wide aisles for ease of shopping, and all items are clearly ticketed.

“We follow the policy of self-selection where a person selects the item of his choice and takes it to the counter,” says Mr Cullington.

Magnet is offering gift wrapping in a choice of special Christmas wrapping paper, or gift wrapping for other occasions. It stocks a wide range of gift items as well as paint at up to 15 per cent discount, wallpaper, hardware, kitchenware, manchester, china and glassware, and some furnishings.

Pegasus Cycles is managed by Mr Len Rhodes and his wife, June. Mr Rhodes is a former racing cyclist and has been in the cycle trade since he was an apprentice in a cycle shop. He says he will be concentrating on the cycle side of the business while Mrs Rhodes will specialise in selling toys, hobbies, kitsets and children’s games.

Pegasus Cycles stocks standard and racing cycles, all frames and accessories including the Holdsworth racing frame, and complements this service with a cycle repair service. “We can also build a bike to dur customer’s specifications,” says Mr Rhodes. Among the many items of interest to children are skateboards, meccano sets, a large range of kitsets, slot cars and handcontrolled model aeroplanes.

The other shop is George Harris Pharmacy, which is spacious and has a full range of cosmetics, toiletries, sunglasses, and pharmaceutical products. George Harris Pharmacy started in Otematata then at Twizel. A shop was also opened at Browns Bay, on Auckland’s North Shore, which has Saturday shopping like New Brighton.