GPT starts $170m Melbourne Central makeover

GPT Group started construction on 12 October 2026 on a $170 million expansion of Melbourne Central, with builder Maben Group marking the milestone with a ceremonial wall demolition on levels three and four of the CBD centre. The works add 7,800 sqm of retail, dining and entertainment space and are scheduled to finish in the first half of 2028.

Why it matters

For a centre that already anchors Melbourne’s retail core, lifting total floor area from about 55,000 sqm to about 63,000 sqm is a material bet on CBD foot traffic recovering further, not just holding steady. GPT is pairing the extra space with a tenant mix built for longer hours: architect ARM Architecture has designed the new levels around a large-format entertainment hub and glazed dining zones intended to draw trade into the evening, alongside new food retailers still to be announced. GPT head of retail Chris Barnett said the expansion was designed so “the precinct we’re delivering will be just as relevant at 9pm as it is at lunchtime,” a framing that points to GPT trying to capture dinner and entertainment spending that a conventional daytime shopping centre would miss. The project also lands a retail flagship: Books Kinokuniya will open its first Melbourne store in the development, after trading from a temporary concept space on level two in the meantime. For other CBD landlords, a $170 million commitment to a single centre signals GPT Group is treating Melbourne Central’s upper levels as an underused asset rather than a finished product.

The numbers

GPT’s own release puts the investment at $170 million, funding 7,800 sqm of new space across levels three and four and taking the centre’s total retail floor area to approximately 63,000 sqm once complete, up from about 55,000 sqm today. That is a floor-area increase of roughly 14 percent. Maben Group is the builder and ARM Architecture the design architect, with GPT targeting completion in 2028 and the Kinokuniya flagship specifically slated for the first half of that year. Maben Group is delivering the fit-out across two upper levels while the rest of Melbourne Central continues trading beneath, a sequencing constraint neither GPT nor Maben has put a separate cost or timeline figure against. GPT has not named the incoming food retailers or given a count, so that tenant list does not appear here. The Urban Developer’s 20 October report dates the start of works on levels three and four to 12 October.

What’s next

The next verifiable marker is the temporary Kinokuniya concept store opening on level two, which GPT has flagged as the interim step before the permanent flagship lands in H1 2028. Beyond that, the test for GPT is whether the finished levels three and four actually convert into the evening and entertainment trade the design is aimed at, since the extra 7,800 sqm only pays off commercially if it pulls visits beyond the standard retail trading day. No additional public funding or planning approval beyond GPT’s own capital commitment appears in either the release or the outlet’s reporting, so the project’s completion risk through to the 2028 finish sits with GPT and its contractors alone.