The company will have spent the thick end of $50 million morphing Papamoa Plaza into a modern shopping experience, but the little old lady on a walking stick only had concern for the new dunnies.

'I'm very excited about the new toilets,” she said on the eve of opening.

She collared centre manager David Hill near the new foodcourt on Wednesday, when it was still bedlam, still a construction site. But by 9am yesterday it was awash in butter chicken, sushi, doner kebabs, burgers, dumplings and juice. Food was up and heads were down.

'That's the lovely thing,” says the terminally enthusiastic David. He had 90 workmen frantically finishing stuff on stage 2B at the plaza but he still made time to exchange niceties with the little old lady. 'It's about ownership, it's their place, their plaza.” And their new dunnies.

'They're a lovely place to stop,” says David. But a toilet is a toilet is a toilet.

'Hell no! It's the whole experience of coming into something light bright and clean.”

They're ‘stunning' at the refurbished Papamoa apparently. 'Everything from the family-friendly parent room, the 24 hour TV, the change table and microwave to the state-of-the-art hand dryers, basins and cubicles.” Microwave? TV?

This is a man who went from Siberia to St Petersburg, from Edmonton to Los Angeles plundering shopping mall ideas and he wrote his masters' thesis on factors affecting shopping centre profitability – he probably knows when a mall dunny is one to behold. And whether it needs a microwave and a TV.

It's a proud moment for David, the man who fixes shopping centres, because Papamoa Plaza was ‘knackered'.

'I walked in here three years ago, the building was distressed, the retailers were distressed and I was distressed.” He thinks he remembers crying.

We all remember it, and not kindly, the faux Mexican hacienda look that even in 1997 when it opened looked dated. But not yesterday, not today.

Seven new food outlets in a sprawling foodcourt about two-and-a-half tennis courts big, tables for 370 diners, cabana style seating for another 24 and 50-plus jobs. Add a couple of new shops opening today and that comes to $20 million invested in just this stage of the development.

And when it all comes together for the grand opening on November 27 there will be 40 shops at the plaza – with more retailers than they have space for.

Some of the shops are just holes in the wall at the moment, bomb shelters. But on the cook's tour with The Weekend Sun, David knows exactly where everyone is going, the size of their shop and their opening date to the day.

'We're delivering what people want,” he explains. 'It's the first rule of retail. On my first day here I promised to find out what the customers wanted and today I am delivering on that promise.”

But Papamoa didn't ask for a grassy knoll and it's now got one, albeit artificial grass. 'Paradoxically, the most used play equipment is the simplest,” explains David, who pilfered this idea from the Russians or the American or the Australians.

It's a mound covered in artificial grass and the kids wander up and roll down. Then they do it again and again and again.

Next year in March Papamoa Plaza starts the evening dining precinct. 'Not your ‘Once were Warriors' beer barn but family oriented restaurants.”

Yes, some big names but no, he won't tell us who. 'We have a synchronised nodding of heads and agreement but they will tell you when they want to. But it will be a mix that reflects the family focus of the community.”

Then in 2018 the big box retailers – Noel Leeming perhaps or the like.

'Then you start all over again. Your have to keep reinvigorating,” says the fixer. 'This is just a good start. I can't emphasise that enough.”'

Did you know that there will be a full time attendant in the dunny at the plaza, someone whose sole job is to keep the toilets clean. Eight people applied for the job.

'They love it, they are very proud of the facilities,” says David. 'And if I went in there now and tried to rearrange things they would chase me out.” Maybe worth a visit, this 'lovely place to stop”.

David's picking foot traffic through the mall will hit five million by Christmas, up from 1.5 million when he started and three million went through the re-development.

'A lot of people and unheard of through a redevelopment,” he says proudly. And some retailers are up 50 per cent on last year. It's a thriving economy. And with flash dunnies.