Pandora strikes $1m lease on Bourke Street Mall
Danish jewellery retailer Pandora will occupy an entire building on Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall after striking a leasing deal worth close to $1 million in annual rent.
Pandora will replace US retailer Nine West at 280-282 Bourke Street Mall, a slender Gothic-style five-level building, next door to Zara on Melbourne’s most expensive shopping strip.
While Pandora will occupy the entire building in a 7-year deal, they will only use the 90 square metre ground floor as retail space (putting the effective retail rent rate at over $11,000 per sq m) with the remaining floors to be used for storage or other non-retail uses. The building has been owned by the Snowden family since 2004.
Leasing agents Zelman Ainsworth, Tan Thach and Samantha Hunt of CBRE negotiated the off-market deal and said it was the biggest retail leasing deal in the Melbourne CBD this year.
Mr Ainsworth said there were no vacancies on Bourke Street Mall, which is home to flagship department stores for Myer, David Jones and H&M.
The last major leasing activity on Bourke Street Mall was in May last year when American sportswear group Foot Locker took 640 square metres across two floors at Deva House at 329 Bourke Street Mall and Sunglass Hut, owned by Italian-based Luxottica Group, expanding into 271 Bourke Street.
Mr Ainsworth said the Pandora deal confirmed that retailers were looking to build a strong retail network in the CBD with the company already having a shop nearby on Little Collins Street and a third store within a three block radius.
Other retailers expanding their CBD presence include Gucci, which has just doubled the size of its Collins Street store and Burberry, which is opening its Australian flagship store also on Collins Street.
“The Melbourne CBD has experience terrific growth in the last 24 months, and is now the most densely populated area in Australia,” Mr Ainsworth said.
