Workers at Melbourne’s Docklands no longer need to go too far afield for their culinary cravings with the first stage of Walker Corporation’s Collins Square retail development now open.

Collins Square will be opened in three stages, with a food offering the first stage to be unveiled.

The 10,000sqm retail space is part of a 200,000sqm, five-tower commercial development at the entrance to Docklands.

Stage one of the retail component launched in July, with stage two to follow in March 2014, and stage three in late 2014 to early 2015.

The first commercial tower, inhabited by the Australian Taxation Office, opened for business in 2012, with the second tower, at 40,000sqm, to house Marsh Mercer and the Commonwealth Bank when it opens in conjunction with stage one of the retail.

According to Walker Corporation’s new business development manager, Campbell Aitken, the decision to launch Collins Square’s retail with a food offering was made in order to set the tone for the $1.5 billion development.

“We saw a hole in the market where there’s a lot of development in the Docklands area, however, no one has put in a food or service offering for the vast amount of people who work down there,” Aitken says.

“We’ve created a retail hub at the entry to Docklands that will ensure that people in our development as well as neighbouring developments don’t have to leave Docklands to fulfill all their retail needs.”

Around 48,000 people are estimated to work and live in the area, with a number of businesses including Fairfax, Myer, ANZ, and AMP also operating offices at Docklands.

In total, Collins Square will house 50 stores, with stage one to open with 17, all of which are signature restaurants or part of the food court, to be known as the ‘dining room’.

“The highlight will be the quality of the tenants,” says Aitken.

“We’ve modeled it on a number of the newer city centre developments that have been done in Sydney and London.

“We’re not calling it a food court, we’re calling it a dining room, it gets away from that connotation of a cardboard box. We really want a crockery and cutlery type food offering. It will be a step up from your traditional food court.”

Stage two will include more restaurants, service operators including a dry cleaner, newsagent, travel agent, and shoe repairer, and a gym.

“There’s no full service gym within the Docklands area. If you want to go to a gym that offers classes you have to cross Spencer St and go up towards Collins to the CBD area, so we’ll tick that box.”

The third and final retail stage is to be anchored by a supermarket, with talks underway with one of the two major supermarket players as well as a third supermarket brand looking at the option of opening “one of their new smaller concepts” at Collins Square.

“A supermarket will ultimately survive given the volume of people that will be there by the time stage three opens. The food court will bring the volume in and people will get used to coming to the centre.”

Stage one opened 100 per cent leased in July, which Aitken says is a good sign of the market and the resilience of the food sector in general.

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel with regards to tenancy mix overall, we’re well aware that Docklands in not a fashion precinct and we’re not trying to create a fashion precinct.

“The retail underneath the commercial towers is designed to service the tenants above and the commercial buildings surrounding it.”

The development is also aimed at a higher demographic to a traditional centre.

“I think that it is high end is reflected in the retail finishes, internal landscaping and tessellated roof,” Aitken explains.

“The ceiling of the commercial areas are very grand, they are extremely high and give the feeling of bringing the Melbourne established grandeur down to the western end of the CBD.”

Collins Square’s retail was designed by the Buchan Group, well known within the industry for its work on modern shopping centre developments.

It will be set across a single level with signature restaurants located on an upper level.

The retail will include dedicated car parking and direct links to public transport, with a tram stop located at the front of the development and Southern Cross train station less than two minutes walk.

This story originally appeared in Inside Retail Magazine. The August/September issue, featuring exclusive coverage of the 2013 Westfield World Retail Study Tour is available now. For more information, click here.