Lighthouse is a

mixed-use development Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...

in the suburb of

Dee Why Dee Why is a coastal suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, 18 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the local government area of Northern Beaches ...

in the

Northern Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the ...

region of Sydney. Lighthouse features 351 apartments and 16,000sqm of retail and commercial space. The shopping centre is known as Meriton Retail Precinct Dee Why is an outdoor

shopping centre A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

anchored by Woolworths and features 16 other stores.

Transport

Lighthouse has bus connections to the

Sydney CBD The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or ...

, Lower North Shore and the

, as well as local surrounding suburbs. All routes are operated by

Keolis Downer Northern Beaches Keolis Downer Northern Beaches is a bus operator in Sydney, Australia. A subsidiary of Keolis Downer, it operates services in Sydney Metropolitan Bus Service Contracts, Sydney Bus Region 8 on the North Shore (Sydney), Lower North Shore and Nort ...

including the B-Line. There is no railway station at Dee Why; the nearest station is located at Chatswood. Lighthouse also has a multi level car park with 700+ spaces.

History

The site on which Lighthouse now stands was originally an outdoor shopping centre developed by Westfield Group in 1963. The centre was known as Dee Why Square and featured McDowells (later Waltons in 1972), Coles New World and 16 stores. It was one of the eight centres developed by the

Westfield Group Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio; ...

around this time with the others located at

Yagoona Yagoona, a suburb of the Local government in Australia, local government area City of Canterbury-Bankstown, is located 20 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is a part of ...

, Eastwood,

Baulkham Hills Baulkham Hills (;) is a suburb in the Hills District, New South Wales, Hills District of Greater Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located within north-west of the Sydney central business district mostly within the Loca ...

, Maroubra,

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

Blacktown Blacktown is a suburb in New South Wales, Australia, west of the Sydney central business district. It is one of the most multicultural places within Sydney, Greater Sydney. History Before the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the area of ...

and Hornsby. Only Hornsby remained owned by Westfield Group (now

Scentre Group Scentre Group Limited is a shopping centre company with retail destinations operating under the Westfield brand in Australia and New Zealand. The corporation undertakes ownership, development, design, construction, funds/asset management, prope ...

) today. Since its opening in 1963, the centre had struggled to compete with nearby Warringah Mall and ownership was transferred from Westfield Group to Vumbaca Brothers Ltd. In 1972 the McDowells store was taken over by Waltons and Coles New World was taken over by

Franklins Franklins was an Australian discount supermarket chain selling packaged groceries and perishables throughout New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia. It sold the "No Frills" home brand generic products. In 2011 the chain wa ...

in 1985. In 1995 the former Venture store (which took over Waltons in 1987) became an arcade with 7 stores and Spotlight on the first floor of the former Venture. The second level remained vacant and was used for storage. By early 2000s, Franklins closed down with the space turned into an arcade with shops. In 2005 Brookfield Multiplex acquired 50% ownership of Dee Why Square. Towards the end of the centre's life, the building was run down and was almost a

dead mall A dead mall, also known as a ghost mall or zombie mall, is a shopping mall that has low consumer traffic or is deteriorating in some manner. Many malls in North America are considered "dead" when they have no surviving anchor store or successor ...

. The centre was renamed Dee Why Town Centre in 2010 and had around 24 stores including Lincraft (which took over Spotlight in 2010).

Recent development

Since 2004 there have been numerous plans build two 18 storey residential towers with open space and retail at the base in the centre of Dee Why. In January 2008 a new development application was lodged for the site known as site B. In 2013 Warringah Council adopted the Dee Why Town Centre masterplan. In December 2013 Meriton purchased Dee Why Town Centre from Brookfield Multiplex and Vumbaca Brothers Ltd. In that same month the plans were revealed for the town square which include four towers of up to 450 units with two standing at 17 storeys tall. The plan included retail, offices and a childcare centre at the base of the tower. In October 2015 construction has started on Dee Why Town Centre which included the removal of shops and the demolition of the buildings. On 18 January 2016, a scissor lift in the old Lincraft building (formerly McDowells) caught fire sending smoke into the sky over the site. Fortunately fire was quickly extinguished although the scissor lift was damaged. Meriton Retail Precinct Dee Why officially opened on 23 November 2018 with the opening of a large Woolworths which relocated from its store in Oaks Avenue to Meriton Retail Precinct, and the opening of Crunch Fitness,

National Australia Bank National Australia Bank Limited (abbreviated NAB, branded and stylised as nab) is one of the four largest Banking in Australia, financial institutions in Australia (colloquially referred to as "Big Four (banking), The Big Four") in terms of mar ...

Commonwealth Bank The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), also known as Commonwealth Bank or simply CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of fi ...

, Grill'd, Guzman y Gomez and other restaurants. On 26 February 2019, Lighthouse had its grand opening which was opened by Harry Triguboff and

Kristina Keneally Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally (born 19 December 1968) is an American-born Australian politician who served as the first female Premier of New South Wales from 2009 to 2011 and was later a Labor Senator for New South Wales from February 2018 u ...

References

External links

Meriton Retail Precinct Dee Why Official Website
{{Shopping centres in New South Wales Shopping centres in Sydney Shopping malls established in 2018 2018 establishments in Australia