The shopping centre developer has revealed several new casual dining franchises which will line the city centre dining strip, which include Charlie Lovett bakery and coffee roaster, Kinn Thai, Pasta Providore and Yogurberry.

These will join tenants Grill’d Healthy Burgers, Coco Cubano bar and cafe, Sushi Bay, chocolatier Max Brenner and Mexican Guzman y Gomez, which were already announced.

Many of the restaurant chains will open their first outlets in the Illawarra, while Max Brenner and Guzman y Gomez - which have stores in Shellharbour - will open their first Wollongong ventures.

GPT development manager Steven Turner said this was an important consideration when allocating tenants in the new mall.

‘‘We wanted to give people things they don’t currently have or that they were leaving Wollongong for and having to find elsewhere,’’ he said.

‘‘The response we got, from people who wanted to be part of this Keira Street precinct, was such a surprise.’’

‘‘As soon as people saw what was on offer - and also what is happening in places like Globe Lane - they all got really excited and wanted to be part of it.’’

The Keira Street eateries are among 80 new retailers which will open in the centre, including Coles, Target, JB Hi Fi and Liquorland, and GPT has also been driving the revitalisation of Globe Lane.

There, Mexican restaurant Beach Burrito and Hungarian bakery Kurtosh will soon open opposite the small bar, His Boy Elroy, and San Churro.

Mr Turner said the new mall was more or less on track to open at the end September, as planned, but warned recent rain had delayed some of the outdoor works.

‘‘The rain has held us up and we are quite delayed now with some of those street works,’’ he said.

‘‘Internally the building is looking fantastic, but outside where we have road works, footpath works, paving, tiling and access to driveways the rain has been really problematic over the last week.’’

He said the company was hoping to lock down an official launch date in the coming weeks.