A purple love cake … a selection of the most gorgeous cupcakes … an accai bowl topped with granola, peanut butter crumbs and blueberries …
When commercial agent Tom Fisher thinks of his latest set of deals, he can’t help his mouth watering. For he’s been a vital part of a major push to sweeten the retail offering on a well-known Melbourne shopping strip that’s fast becoming a pre-eminent foodie hub.
Fisher, a senior manager at the Fitzroys agency, has just negotiated leases for cake and cupcake start-up Drop By Sweet and for Oakberry Acai on Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn – raising the proportion of food and beverage tenancies on the street to a long-term high of 44 per cent.
“There are now so many food and take-away places, with lots of quality, established operators, that have come in there in the last 12 months as everyone kicks back into gear after COVID,” Fisher said. “It’s now a thriving foodie hub.
“There’s really something for everyone, and now the acai bowls and cakes mean you can get dessert there too!”
According to Fitzroys’ Walk the Strip report, the vacancy rate on Glenferrie Road has plunged from last year’s 12.8 per cent down to 7.9 per cent now – one of the biggest falls in vacancy rates across Melbourne’s strip shopping areas.
The newcomers will now join other food companies on the strip like KFC, McDonald’s, Guzman y Gomez, Roll’d Vietnamese, Saul’s Sandwiches, Yo-Chi, Sushi Sushi, Sushi Hub and Fonda Mexican.
Drop By Sweet, which previously only sold its Asian-flavoured, pillow-soft delicacies online, now has the shop at 636 Glenferrie Road at $37,000 a year, plus outgoings and GST, on a rate of $1555 per square metre.
Owner May Yoksakool said she’d been running her home-based business for the past 18 months, but it had grown so busy, she decided to launch her shop to sell on-site as well as online. “Everyone seems to like our cakes and cupcakes and it was getting so much, we decided to have our own shop,” she said.
“And it’s worked out well. In addition to our online customers, we have now picked up so many more local customers as there is so much foot traffic along Glenferrie Road with all the office workers and the students at nearby Swinburne University. The area feels quite unique, too, with so many different varieties of food being offered and such a nice location.”
Fisher felt it was a very wise choice. “Smaller and fitted-out spaces allow operators to open up quickly and, in this case, establish a bricks-and-mortar presence, without having to commit to fit-out costs and higher rents for larger spaces,” he said.
The global food company Oakberry Accai also liked the street so much, they signed a seven-year deal for their second Melbourne outlet at 694 Glenferrie Road at $70,000-plus a year, at a rate of $1555 per square metre, following its first store in Prahran, as well as others in Sydney.
It has joined another delicious store, Kori Ice Cream, which moved to the strip nine months ago, offering a series of tantalising Japanese flavours, like yuzu – or Japanese lemon – strawberry sudachi – or Japanese lime – and matcha pistachio.
“It’s getting difficult to watch the waistline down there,” said Fitzroys division director Chris James. “But it’s good to see so much happening.
“It’s probably a little bit reflective of students returning, especially from China, and the office workers coming back, with a new office tower for Westpac coming on line. There’s lots more demand coming up.”