10 December 2004
Chief Minister's Call to Revitalise Mall
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Clare Martin MLA
Chief Minister
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Delivering her State of the Territory address at the annual NT Property Council lunch, Chief Minister, Clare Martin, today called for Darwin City Council, the Property Council and the city business community to work together and revitalise the mall.
Ms Martin said that there is currently a lack of strategy and coordination between property owners, tenants, retailers and council.
“The mall is the heart of the Darwin CBD and needs new life breathed back into it,” she said.
“One option that I support is opening the mall to traffic but, importantly, there needs to be a 5-10 year strategy developed because it has fallen behind as a competitive alternative to Casuarina.”
Ms Martin said that Government was doing its bit to attract people to Darwin CBD - through the $1 billion Darwin City Waterfront project - and that this exciting initiative could be used to spark the revitalisation of the mall.
“There needs to be more to draw people into the mall, currently few people go there on weekends and half the shops are closed, so too at night or if it rains,” she said.
“By opening the mall to traffic - and looking at other areas such as opening times and the mix of shops - it can be brought back to life and this is the challenge for the DCC, Property Council and shop owners.”
Ms Martin said that over the next decade the number of people living in the city will increase and there will be more tourists, convention centre delegates, cruise ships passengers and locals which the mall could capitalise on and, once again, become an attraction.
She also outlined key details about the waterfront project in today’s speech.
- World class convention and exhibition centre.
- 10 hectares of open space.
- Stinger free beach, wave pool and other swimming pools.
- 2km of walkways.
- Restaurants, cafes and public art.
- cruise ship terminal.
- 1,000 jobs during construction.
- $250 million infrastructure expenditure over next three years