Highbury Shopping Centre (33 Mokoia Road)

The opening of the Auckland Harbour Bridge in 1959 led to the slow decline of Highbury as a commercial centre on the North Shore. As more people moved into the surrounding suburbs of Glenfield, Northcote, Hillcrest, and Kauri Park, they stopped patronising Highbury’s stores. Many of the old commercial buildings fell into disrepair or were vacated. And there was a general feeling amongst Birkenhead City councillors that the place needed a major revitalisation to restore its prominence in the community. One such solution was adding a major supermarket at Highbury.

Plans came into place in the mid-1980s to develop Hammond Place and the frontage along the new Highbury Bypass into a modest shopping centre. The creation of North Shore City in 1989 delayed the construction but the shops along Birkenhead Avenue and Mokoia Road were given a thorough freshening up. In 1990, Countdown agreed to be the anchor supermarket for the complex and Pace Property Group was given the construction contract. Its planned Strawberry Fields Shopping Centre, in recognition of the strawberries that once grew on the property, endured nearly three years of delay before the North Shore City Council revoked its permit. In October 1993, Woodland Construction was granted the contract and they began work on the Highpoint Shopping Centre in April 1994.

When it opened on Monday, 8 May 1995, Highpoint’s central feature was a tower at its entrance which provided beautiful views of the Waitematā and Auckland City. Woodland, bowing to public concerns, nearly doubled its parking and provided retail space for 28 shops, plus a food court and a rooftop restaurant. The mall was almost fully occupied when it opened and it immediately resuscitated the Highbury area.

Woodland Construction went bankrupt shortly after the mall opened, so none of its planned expansions, including a second rooftop restaurant and a cinema, were built. A smaller expansion under a new owner was made in 1997, primarily to increase retail space and expand parking options. At the same time, the mall was renamed Birkenhead Shopping Centre to better reflect the community. In the mid-2000s, the mall was rebranded Highbury Shopping Centre in marketing material, although the new name was only legally adopted in 2017.

Continue along Mokoia Road.