How LVMH’s high-end jewellery brand FRED plans to conquer its luxury rivals

The tiny 60 square metre boutique space FRED will occupy is part of the fully leased 161 Collins Street building. However, it faces Russell Street, where overflow from Collins has created a fast-growing CBD luxury precinct.

“Loewe turned a 300 square metre pizza shop into its first street store in Asia Pacific. They’re usually in malls or airports,” leasing agent AP’s Zelman Ainsworth said.

FRED is replacing shoe retailer Luisa, which has moved to the boutique strip on Little Collins Street.

A shortage of space on the top end of Collins Street has pushed new luxury international retailers into Russell Street. Flinders Lane and Exhibition Street are next, Ainsworth said.

While Flinders Lane, historically the centre of the city’s rag trade, has always featured interesting boutiques, the ground is shifting. “It’s not just shops selling luxury products, it’s international labels creating vertical flagship stores,” he said.

The numbers tell the story. This year, LVMH paid $39 million for 140 Flinders Lane, on the Russell Street corner, where it is widely tipped to be putting in a new Christian Dior store.

Across the road is Chanel, which kicked off this trend in 2014, opening a four-level shop at 42 Russell Street in a building owned by David Marriner.

Rolex also paid $37.1 million to the Liberal Party for its art deco headquarters at 104 Exhibition Street, and has since opened a local headquarters and service centre.

Back in the Paris-end of Collins Street, on the corner of Russell Street, is 139 Collins, which was acquired by Singapore-listed retailer Hour Glass for $68 million. It is across the road from Pembroke-owned No.161 Collins, which houses big-name brands Gucci, Max Mara and Bottega Veneta on its ground floor.

On the ground floor of a modernist tower at 100 Collins Street, designer shoemaker Jimmy Choo has a 200 sq m shop due to open next month. Its 10-year lease is understood to be struck at about $6000 a sq m.

Commercial real estate agents report that many rents at the Paris-end of Collins have increased slightly to around $5000-7500 a sq m. Knight Frank’s Gary Loo said some other sites are $3000-$4500 a sq m.

Loo is negotiating with a new tenant for the Collins Street-facing space at No.234 – the old Sportsgirl Centre. “We are also getting inquiry for the smaller spaces inside. Some retailers who are finding it hard to get something small on the street are looking inside,” Loo said.

“Collins Street [business] has been steady on the back of incoming tourists from interstate and overseas. There hasn’t been much churn and most tenants have stayed where they are,” he said.

Loo is also marketing some other new space on Collins.

Phileo, the owner of No.303 on the corner of Elizabeth Street, has proposed a new 900 sq m two-level addition to its curved office tower. Across the Elizabeth Street intersection, the watch retailing hub which has emerged in and around the Block Arcade is likely to get new tenants soon.

Gorman Allard Shelton agent Joseph Walton is marketing the corner shops at the Cashmore building at 300 Collins Street.

New shops for Grand Seiko, Oris and British luxury watch brand Bremont have opened or are underway at the Block Arcade, joining Tag Heuer, Bell & Ross and The Hour Glass on the block. “The watch retailers are all customer experience-focused,” Walton said.

The Hour Glass, at 252 Collins Street, has undergone a fresh fit-out, which inspires confidence in other retailers and potential tenants, he said.