Standing on the balcony of the new Urban Alley brewery under construction at Chadstone Shopping Centre, you look out over sweeping views of the surrounding suburbs and back to the CBD.

Chadstone is booming: visitations are up by almost a third, and on The Age's visit to the shopping centre behemoth on a Tuesday in September, the car parks are largely full.

For a shopping centre groaning at the seams, the only way is up with Chadstone's buildings heading ever skyward to maintain the centre's existing footprint. If the centre owners have their way, it would reach close to 20 storeys.

Urban Alley is almost tripling in size, increasing from a 150-seat venue in the shopping centre's "social quarter" to a two-storey, 420-seat venue.