Dress Smart

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Dress Smart
Dressmart Outlet Store, Onehunga.jpg
Dress Smart as viewed from Galway Street, Onehunga.
Dress Smart
Location Onehunga, Auckland; Hornby, Christchurch
Address151 Arthur Street, Onehunga, Auckland 1061, New Zealand; 409 Main South Road, Hornby, Christchurch
Opening date1995;30 years ago (1995)
DeveloperArgyle Estates [1]
Owner Lendlease [2]
Stores and services100+ (Auckland); 45+ (Christchurch)
Floors2
Website dress-smart.co.nz

Dress Smart is a franchise of shopping centres in New Zealand that specialises in outlet stores.

Contents

History

Dress Smart opened in October 1995 as New Zealand's first factory outlet shopping centre. The company was created by John Bougen, was inspired by a factory outlet centre between Vancouver and Seattle. [3]

The first centre was located in Onehunga, Auckland. On a site that was once the premises of a 3 Guys supermarket and some neighbouring stores. [4] Twenty stores were at the centre on opening day including Just Jeans, Michael Hill, and Rodd & Gunn that still operate stores at the centre and the since closed The Body Shop, Lane Walker Rudkin (now Canterbury), Country Road, Esprit, Nautica, Overland, Pumpkin Patch. [3] Due to the centres popularity retailiers opened in the nearby Paynes Lane until expansion led to its demolition and move underground in 1999. [5]

Dress Smart opened a Christchurch (Hornby) shopping centre in 1998. [5] Also in 1998 AMP Asset Management acquired half of Dress Smart. [5]

In 1999, Dress Smart was granted resource consent to double the size of its Onehunga shopping centre. [5] Dress Smart opened in Wellington (Tawa) in October 2000. [5]

In 2003 the three centres were sold to ING Retail Property Fund Australia. [6]

A Hamilton shopping centre opened in 2006 as part of The Base. [7]

Dress Smart completed an expansion of its Onehunga and Hornby centres in 2005, the Onehunga store count was brought to 110. [8]

Dress Smart was sold in 2010 to the Lend Lease Corporation. [6]

The Wellington shopping centre was sold in 2013 and rebranded to Outlet Centre. [9]

Dress Smart Hornby was listed for sale in 2025. [10]

Centres

NameSizeOpenedClosed
Auckland / Onehunga13,202 m2 (142,105 sq ft)October 1995 [3] open
Christchurch / Hornby7,125 m2 (76,693 sq ft) [10] 1998open
Wellington / TawaOctober 1999 [5] 2013 [9] (sold and rebranded to Outlet Centre)
Hamilton / Te Rapa2006(now The Base)

See also

References

  1. ↑ Argyle Estates Archived July 22, 2013, at the Wayback Machine About Us. (Accessed 16 July 2013.)
  2. ↑ Australia's Lend Lease Corp given approval to buy Dress Smart outlet chain New Zealand Herald. 2 June 2010. (Accessed 16 July 2013.)
  3. 1 2 3 Masters, Catherine (10 October 2025). "Dress Smart at 30: How a toilet stop at a 's***ty' US mall sparked a Kiwi shopping revolution". Oneroof. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  4. ↑ Onehunga shop bonanza New Zealand Herald. 9 June 1999. (Accessed 16 July 2013.)
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Onehunga shop bonanza". The New Zealand Herald . 9 June 1999. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  6. 1 2 Gibson, Anne. "Australia's Lend Lease Corp given approval to buy Dress Smart outlet chain". The New Zealand Herald . Retrieved 16 September 2024.
  7. ↑ Holloway, Bruce (13 July 2009). "Dress Smart says all is fine after business closures". www.stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  8. ↑ "Dress-Smart Expansions Near Completion | Scoop News". www.scoop.co.nz. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  9. 1 2 Winter, Chloe (7 April 2016). "Outlet City in Tawa sells to Porirua MegaCentre owner Thompson Property Group". www.stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 11 October 2025.
  10. 1 2 Daly, Michael (15 July 2025). "South Island's only dedicated outlet shopping centre for sale". www.stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 11 October 2025.


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