A year to remember for Burnside Village director Pat Cohen
Pat Cohen and her late husband Richard literally built Burnside Village up from the ground in the early 1970s. Shortly after her 90th birthday and ahead of a major extension of the iconic shopping destination, she shares her life story in an exclusive interview with InDaily.
Not many people can say they’ve made it to 90 years old. Less still can say they’ve created an iconic shopping destination that has become synonymous with luxury, style and sophistication.
Except perhaps Burnside Village director and co-founder Pat Cohen, who along with her late husband Richard established the Adelaide institution in the 1970s, literally from the ground up.
“To tell you about the origins, I first must start with, ‘Why Adelaide?,'” Cohen told InDaily shortly after celebrating her 90th birthday, which neatly coincides with a soon-to-be-open major expansion of the shopping centre.
“My father, a colonial police officer, had to take leave. He had a cousin in Mount Barker, so we came here,” said Cohen, who was born to English parents in Penang.
“We initially stayed with him in a beautiful home, but it wasn’t a long-term solution. My father had to return to Singapore, where he became a prisoner of war, leaving my mother, brother, sister and me to start a new life in Adelaide.”
However, it wasn’t always in the real estate sector that Cohen imagined herself working.
You might like
After school, she trained to be a nurse and worked as a midwife for many years, but she eventually realised that medical procedures just weren’t for her.
“The pure sight of incisions and needles made me quite queasy, so I decided it was time for a career change,” said Cohen.
In the 1960s, Cohen and a friend started a small bakery in a converted caravan, which became famous for its uniquely shaped bread.
It was a few years later in the early 1970s when the embryo of what is now Burnside Village came into existence.
“My husband Richard was always involved in real estate. He had a knack for spotting opportunities and making instinctive decisions,” Cohen told InDaily.
“We would joke that even if were eating baked beans for a week, it would all be worth it in the end.”
Cohen says they didn’t have any grand plans to start with, although it was clear that Adelaide lacked that luxury, people-first shopping experience where dressmakers could showcase their designs.
“We initially bought properties to accommodate the shops we had for a little extra parking. That’s how we started to create the original L-shape design of Burnside Village. We never imagined it would grow into what it is today,” said Cohen.
Stay informed, daily
“As we acquired individual properties one by one, we saw the potential to create something great.
“Later, we saw the need to create a bright, open space where people could feel comfortable to meet, families could feel safe and secure, and shoppers could enjoy an elevated experience.”
Cohen tells InDaily that the location of Burnside Village was a “happy accident”.
“We soon noticed that those living in the Adelaide Hills and surrounding [suburbs] no longer had to make the trek into the city to do their shopping.”
Cohen said she and her husband made a perfect team, with her focusing on the creative aspects, while Richard handled the real estate and business side of things.
This includes the artwork you see around Burnside Village, including a recreation of her childhood dollhouse, which she left in England when her family fled Nazi Germany’s Blitz bombing campaign during World War II.
“I always felt that Richard and I were very in sync with our decision-making and what we wanted to achieve,” said Cohen.
Cohen’s husband sadly passed away in 2009, but she continues to honour his legacy and the happy life they lived together.
She and her children created the Burnside Village Foundation for him, which supports arts initiatives around Adelaide. She has also kept the original vines planted by Richard all those years ago.
Cohen says the latest expansion to the Burnside Village is also a tribute to him.
“I believe that he would be incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved as a family and a team,” said Cohen.
“My three sons, Peter, Paul and Andrew, serve on the Cohen Group Board, carrying forward his legacy with dedication and skill, which fills me with immersive pride.”
Cohen, who celebrated her birthday on January 8 (the same day as Elvis, as she likes to say), says that even after all these years, it still gives her a thrill when people mention the Burnside Village.
“When I hear people saying, “I’ll see you at BV”, or “let’s meet at BV”—that’s where the magic is.”
