The sale of Thames' Goldfields Shopping Mall is being met with enthusiasm from users, who say the facility would greatly benefit from an upgrade to attract sustainable new retailers in the town.

The facility was reportedly sold to property investor Andrew Budge for about $7 million after more than two years on the market.

Thames shoppers have been making suggestions on how to improve Goldfields Shopping Mall, which has been reported sold to property investor Andrew Budge.

Built in the 1990s, Goldfields has a net lettable retail area of about 8169m2 plus 550 carparks on a 1.6ha site.

A major attraction of the mall is The Warehouse, which opened its doors in 1997 and covers 45 per cent of the shopping centre's retail area.

The mainly single-level shopping centre's 30 speciality stores cover 4917m2 of air-conditioned space.

Goldfields' website makes no mention of the sale in its news section and while no announcements have been made of Mr Budge's intentions for the mall, news of its sale is being hotly followed by shoppers.

In response to a post on Facebook by Thames-Coromandel District Council seeking suggestions for the development, a stream of comments poured in seeking improvements to the facility.

These include modernising all areas of the mall, providing a more comfortable and usable parents room, more shops – with K-mart topping the list of requests – replacing the tiled areas outside with a non-slip footpath 'so we don't have to worry every time it gets a bit wet”.

Detailed suggestions like the call for 'a public space that doesn't smell of roast meat” have also been made.

Economic development is a major focus area for Thames-Coromandel District Council, which is seeking to increase in employment on the Coromandel by five per cent by the end of 2018.

Like shoppers who commented on Facebook, Mayor Glenn Leach is also watching the development closely.

'We are very interested in hearing from the new investors and finding out the plans for this site,” says Glenn.

'Our Facebook page has been inundated with comments and ideas from our communities about what could be done to the site, so we're seeing a lot of excitement and interest in this project already.”