Early years Karingal Hub opened in 1978 with a simple L-shape designed mall including the two anchor tenants of Big W and
Safeway. Karingal Hub was managed by Jennings Properties, a part of
AVJennings of which developed the Karingal estate. Karingal Hub expanded in 1984, adding a third mall section with space for another large tenant. This would end up being occupied by
Woolworths, who by 1985 owned Safeway, retaining the space (essentially two of the same supermarket) to keep a monopoly on the locality. Jennings Properties later became Centro in the 1990's (now Vicinity Centres after a
Novion merger), and like other Centro shopping centres, Karingal Hub was later renamed to Centro Karingal. There were a number of minor additions during the 90's, including a new food court.
Growth In 2005, the centre expanded. A new
Village Cinemas (see
§ Town Square) and entertainment and wellbeing multiplex called
Star Zone opened. This was to compete with
Bayside Shopping Centre's plan to open an entertainment complex with a multi-screen cinema in Frankston's CBD, completing its construction a year after Karingal's Star Zone. The multiplex in Karingal was physically disconnected from the main centre but shared the same management and parking and could be traversed to and back safely using pedestrian paths. In 2006, redevelopment of the main shopping centre included the refurbishment of the inner and outer facades as well as an extension of the northwest portion where the current
Best and Less and
River stores are currently located in addition to a large atrium food court and concourse, increasing the gross lettable area up by 12,500 square meters.
Acquisition and redesignation In July, 2013, Karingal Hub was acquired by ISPT (the Industry Superannuation Property Trust) from Federation Centres (Centro's name before the
Novion merger) for $115 million. In the same month, both of the Safeway stores in the centre were rebranded to Woolworths following the
Woolworth Group 1985 acquisition of
Safeway Pty Ltd and its decision to unify the branding.
2021 and onwards In 2021, Karingal Hub unveiled a $160 million renovation and extension of its premises which included 12,000m^{2} of new shopping space added on onto the existing
infrastructure in three separate stages, connecting the two separate spaces of the main shopping mall and
entertainment space, with the plan being under consideration since April 2013.
Stage 1 The first stage introduced Karingal Hub's new 'Fresh Food Precinct' which featured more than 28 fresh food and specialty retailers, including a new marketplace,
Coles,
Aldi, a refurbished
Woolworths as well as additional stores such as
Baker's Delight,
Poultry Plus,
Roll'd,
Walker's Doughnuts, and more. It featured a huge open space in the heart of such area for specialty kiosks and events. This stage also introduced the new
Food Court now located opposite
Big W and adjacent
Tk Maxx. The previous food court located to the north of the new one in addition to its large open space area was fully demolished and rebuilt, integrating into the fashion precinct. Some retailers such as
McDonald's has not returned to Karingal Hub after this renovation for unknown reasons, leading to a controversy, however evidence suggests that due to another
franchisee of McDonald's being in a close proximity to Karingal Hub, they may have chosen not to reopen.
Stage 3 The third and final stage introduced the
§ Town Square which was an overhaul to the former "Star Zone Karingal" area and includes the existing
Village Cinemas in addition to a range of dining experiences, communal gathering and play areas. A new
escalator and
lift connects it vitally to the main and central section of Karingal Hub through the Fresh Food Precinct. == Retailers ==