Myer Melbourne - Australia's latest multi-million dollar retail deal, Debenhams announces Melbourne location, H&M confirms 16th Australian store opening, and Kaia Gerber scores first beauty contract.
Myer Melbourne - Australia's latest multi-million dollar retail deal
Over the past 15 months, a king's ransom of multi-million dollar sales and investments has changed the ownership of some of Australia's most iconic retail locations. Myer Melbourne, at 40,000 square metres spread over nine stories, is one of the most recognisable buildings in the country. In an off-market sale, TH Real Estate has acquired 33 per cent of the 102 year old Bourke Street flagship for $151.3 million.
TH Real Estate is a major international real estate investor, managing $US96.3 billion in retail assets across the US, Europe and the Asia/Pacific region. According to Simon Rooney, head of retail investments, JLL, the global investments management firm who brokered the Myer Melbourne investment : "We continue to see offshore investors being active in the Australian market. The inflow of offshore capital into retail assets reached a record high in 2015, with acquisitions of $2.5 billion across all shopping centre categories. Approximately $1.5 billion of retail assets have been acquired by offshore parties in 2016 year-to-date."
Since May last year, major retail buyouts in Sydney have included David Jones Market Street store ($360 million), a 75 per cent interest in Mid-City Centre ($320 million) and a 50 per cent investment in World Square ($285 million). Adelaide is another hotspot with sales including Rundle Mall and 80 Grenfell Street ($400 million) and Myer Centre Adelaide ($288 million). "The imminent sale of St. Collins Lane in Melbourne, in addition to a number of CBD shopping centres currently being marketed by JLL, amount to over $450 million in transactions volume which would exceed last year's record," adds Rooney.
Debenhams announces Melbourne location
Speaking of the up-and-coming sale of St.Collins Lane, which opened in May and bills itself as "Melbourne's most unique shopping destination." Debenhams, the heritage British department store, has just leased space in the luxury precinct between Little Collins and Collins Streets. Beauty brands perked up their corporate ears earlier this year at the announcement that the storied retailer was planning to open up shop in Australia. Operating in more than 240 stores across 28 countries, Debenhams holds the number two market position in prestige beauty and health in the UK.
Claiming to be a designer store for the digital age, the new Debenhams premises will offer 3600 square metres of women's, mens and childrens fashions, beauty and homewares especially curated for the Melbourne market. Construction of the two level store will begin early next year. Exciting fashion names to save up for include Jasper Conran, Henry Holland, Jenny Packham and Julien Macdonald.
H&M confirms 16th Australian store opening
It's been a frenetic two years for the world's second largest fashion retailer. The Swedish giant entered the Australian market in 2014 and has announced it will open a new store in Chadstone in Melbourne on October 13th. A bare three months after opening the H&M store at Pacific Werribee, recently revamped to the tune of $370 million.
The new Chadstone store will sprawl over two levels at 4000 square metres, and will be twice the size of H&M's recently opened location at Broadway Shopping Centre in Sydney. According to Hans Andersson, Australian Country Manager for H&M: "We cannot wait to see the response on opening day. We think H&M stores at both Pacific Werribee and Chadstone will encapsulate the unique retail shopping experience that is H&M and we are looking forward to connecting further with our customers through our wide assortment offering."
Apart from the two new Victorian stores which will take the state's tally to four, including Melbourne's GPO and Eastland Shopping Centre. NSW boasts H&M stores in Macquarie Centre, Chatswood Westfield, Charlestown Square near Lake Macquarie, Wollongong Central, Broadway and Pitt Street Mall. North of the border, Queensland has four H&M stores - Indooroopilly Shopping Centre, Westfield Garden City, Pacific Fair and Queen Street, Brisbane. The Lakeside Joondalup Shopping City, the largest shopping complex in Perth, is home to WA's only H&M outpost.
Kaia Gerber scores first beauty contract
Two years ago, Beauty garnered almost blanket media coverage for appointing then-64 year old Jessica Lange as its face . Several brands followed suit and in March this year, Isabella Rossellini returned to the Lancôme fold at the age of sixty-three. But trends are fleeting.
In 2013, Marc Jacobs Beauty, developed in collaboration with Sephora, launched its first 122 SKUs, including shiny lip vinyls and glossy nail polishes, which became an instant hit with young fashionistas and the more mature women represented by Lange. The fast-growing brand has now gone to the other end of the age spectrum for its latest visage - 15 year old Kaia Gerber, the daughter of ageless supermodel, Cindy Crawford. The teen already has a swag of fashion campaigns to her credit, including Alexander Wang and Miu Miu, but this is her first beauty contract.
Snippets from the wires
- Double digit growth in digital advertising is fuelling the overall Australian advertising market, reports the latest global survey from Carat. Global growth will increase by 4.4 per cent over the next year to $US548.2 billion. Over the next 12 months, Australia's advertising spend will climb by 4.5 per cent.
- A recent survey in the UK explains why many men don't seek a doctor's help to discuss their mental health. Over 50 per cent of British men feel more comfortable chatting about problems such as depression with their barber or hair stylist, accrding to the study by The Lions Barber Collective Charity. The personal tie is so close that 78 per cent of men said it was a conscious decision to visit the same barber.
- In December 2012, Brazilian cosmetic giant Natura bought a 65 per cent stake in Aesop for $68 million. The feted Australian-born brand has just opened its second store in Brazil in Sao Paolo's hip Jardim America district.
- Suh Kyung-bae, the Chairman and CEO of AmorePacific, is South Korea's second-richest man. Following the K-Beauty boom, the cosmetics billionaire has announced that he will privately fund a new science foundation - The Suh Kyung-bae Scientific Foundation - with an endowment of $US268 million.
- Eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes lives on. The real estate group founded by his father - Howard Hughes Senior - is plunging $US500 million into an urban renewal project in New York's Seaport District. Milanese department store, 10 Corso Como, will open a new outpost in the precinct next June. The company already has three international locations in Seoul, Shanghai and Beijing.
