Location | Melbourne, Australia |
---|---|
Coordinates | 37°48′57″S144°57′54″E / 37.8159°S 144.9649°E Coordinates: 37°48′57″S144°57′54″E / 37.8159°S 144.9649°E |
Address | 260 Collins Street |
Opening date |
|
Owner | JPMorgan Asset Management |
Architect | ARM Architecture |
No. of stores and services | 55 |
Total retail floor area | 9,000 square metres (97,000 sq ft) |
No. of floors | 4 |
Website | stcollinslane |
St. Collins Lane is a shopping centre completed in 2016, designed by ARM Architecture, which stretches between Collins and Little Collins streets in Melbourne, Australia. Previously there were restaurants, arcades and hotels on the site.
It leads directly into the Walk Arcade at the northern end, and faces Centre Place across Collins Street at the southern end, forming part of a chain of arcades and lanes which lead from Flinders Street station to Melbourne Central Shopping Centre through the blocks between Elizabeth and Swanston streets. [1]
Starting in the late 1870s, this block of Collins Street was home to the city's most fashionable stores, such as milliners, glove-importers, portrait painters, photographers and hairdressers. Businesses such as George's Emporium, Allan's and Glen's music and Mullens' Bookshop and Lending Library drew the cream of Melbourne society. The act of promenading here became a social pastime, known as ‘doing the block’, and the street became known simply as "The Block", a title taken up by the Block Arcade, built 1890-93. [2] Gunstler's Cafe (at about 280 Collins Street) was established in 1879 and was amongst the most fashionable restaurants in the city. In 1890 it was renamed the Vienna Café, which in 1908 was purchased by Greek Australian restauranter Antony J. Lucas. [3] During World War I the name of the cafe became controversial, and Lucas responded by expanding and completely rebuilding the interior in 1916, and it reopened as the Cafe Australia, the finest tea-room in the city. [4] Designed by US trained architect Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, it was their first completed major work in their adopted country, and featured fountains, sculpture, planting, indirect lighting, and their distinctive intricate geometric detailing. In the late 1930s, the Cafe was demolished and replaced by the Hotel Australia, completed in mid 1939. Designed by Leslie M. Perrott, it was a 12-storey building with 94 rooms, numerous private dining and function rooms, and was the most prestigious hotel in Melbourne in its day. [5] It included an arched-roofed ballroom which was a simplified version of the main Cafe Australia space. The hotel included two small cinemas, [6] a restaurant and bar in the basement, and a through-block shopping arcade on the ground floor which was touted as the largest in Australia, known as the Australia Arcade. [3]
In 1989, the Hotel Australia was demolished to make way for a new development, completed in 1992, the Australia on Collins shopping arcade and four star hotel. [5] The building's architecture, designed by Buchan Laid & Bawden (now the Buchan Group) was variously described as postmodern and imitating art deco style, [7] and the shopping levels were ramped up and down from the street entrances in order to maximise the number of shops, and which resulted in a confusing layout. In later years, Australia on Collins was criticised as "a poor man's temple to the great god of commercialism" and included in a list of Melbourne's worst buildings by The Age newspaper. [8] The shopping centre in this period included approximately 100 shops and a food court with space for 750 diners. [9]
In April 2014, then owners LaSalle Investment Management (LIM) announced that the "dysfunctional" centre would be closed for a redevelopment costing$30 million. Architects Ashton Raggat McDougall were engaged to improve the building's "sight lines" and to prevent customers from feeling "trapped", which resulted in the shopping levels being reduced from five levels to four, without the ramping. LIM stated that the redeveloped centre would be made up of larger stores with a focus on international brands. [9]
The redeveloped St. Collins Lane opened on 16 May 2016 and was immediately placed on the market by its owners, along with the Melbourne Novotel hotel. [10] The centre had an approximately 70% tenancy rate at opening and was hoped by its owners to rival the recently opened Emporium Melbourne on Lonsdale Street. [11]
St. Collins Lane was purchased in November 2016 by JPMorgan Asset Management for a reported price of $247 million. [12] In March 2020, JPMorgan was trying to offload the struggling mall for $150 million [13]
The mall has struggled to find tenants. In 2017 it had 45% vacancy. [14]
The centre has 35 [15] operating stores and includes clothing, footwear and cosmetics outlets, as well as a food court. Current key tenants include Leica, Maje, Coach, Furla, The Kooples, Zadig & Voltaire, Tag Heuer and Birkenstock.
UK department store Debenhams opened as an anchor tenant in October 2017 [16] but closed in January 2020. In November 2018, Melbourne’s first Leica store and gallery opened offering an art gallery, studio and Akademie workshops. [17]
In November 2018, it was announced that British watchmaker Bremont and Paris fashion house Claudie Pierlot had signed on as new tenants. Bremont is set to open in December 2018 while Claudie Pierlot will open for trading in the first half of 2019. [18]
Four new restaurants, Shujinko, Poke and Sushi Boto, Meat the Challenge and Saint Dreux are set to open in the summer of 2018/19. [18]
The centre has 9,000 square metres (97,000 sq ft) of lettable floor space spread across 55 retail stores and 12 restaurants. As of November 2018 [update] , approximately 34 retailers were open, and 4 restaurants were operating on the top-floor "dining precinct". [15]
Bourke Street is one of the main streets in the Melbourne central business district and a core feature of the Hoddle Grid. It was traditionally the entertainment hub of inner-city Melbourne, and is now also a popular tourist destination and tram thoroughfare.
Collins Street is a major street in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was laid out in the first survey of Melbourne, the original 1837 Hoddle Grid, and soon became the most desired address in the city. Collins Street was named after Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania David Collins who led a group of settlers in establishing a short-lived settlement at Sorrento in 1803.
Elizabeth Street is one of the main streets in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, part of the Hoddle Grid laid out in 1837. It is presumed to have been named in honour of governor Richard Bourke's wife.
Hardware Lane is a wide laneway in Melbourne, Australia. It runs roughly north–south between Bourke Street and Little Lonsdale Street in the city centre. It changes name to Hardware Street between Lonsdale and Little Lonsdale Streets.
Tourism in Melbourne is a significant industry in the state of Victoria, Australia. The country's second most-populous city, Melbourne was visited by 2.7 million international overnight visitors and 9.3 million domestic overnight visitors during the year ending December 2017.
Lonsdale Street is a main street and thoroughfare in the city centre of Melbourne, Australia. It runs roughly east–west and was laid out in 1837 as one of Melbourne's original boundaries within the Hoddle Grid. The street extends from Spring Street in the east to Spencer Street in the west.
Melbourne Central is a large shopping centre, office, and public transport hub in the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The complex includes the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, which was refurbished in 2005 by architects Ashton Raggatt McDougall; the Melbourne Central railway station ; and the 211-metre (692 ft) high office tower with its distinctive black colour and two communications masts. The centre features a gross leasable area of 55,100 square metres (593,000 sq ft). It is owned by GPT Group.
St David's, previously known as St David's Shopping Centre, is one of the principal shopping centres in the city centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is in The Hayes area of the southern city centre. Following the extension of St David's 2 in 2009, St David's is the third busiest shopping centre in the United Kingdom.
Centre Place is a laneway and pedestrian precinct in Melbourne, Australia. It runs north from Flinders Lane to Collins Street, between Elizabeth Street and Swanston Street.
Little Collins Street is a minor street in the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Degraves Street is a pedestrian precinct and thoroughfare in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is a short, narrow laneway in the Central Business District that runs north–south from Flinders Street to Flinders Lane and is situated in-between Swanston Street and Elizabeth Street. Degraves, as the street is colloquially known, is famous for its alfresco dining options and because it epitomises Melbourne's coffee culture and street art scene. For these reasons it has also become a popular tourist destination.
Flinders Lane is a minor street and thoroughfare in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The laneway runs east–west from Spring Street to Spencer Street in-between Flinders and Collins Streets. Originally laid out as part of the Hoddle Grid in 1837, the laneway was once the centre of Melbourne's rag trade and is still home to boutique designers and high-end retailers including Chanel, now perched alongside numerous upscale hotels like the W Hotel Melbourne and Adelphi Hotel, loft apartments, cafes and bars.
The Block Arcade is an historic shopping arcade in the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Constructed between 1891 and 1893, it is considered one of the late Victorian era's finest shopping arcades and ranks among Melbourne's most popular tourist attractions.
World Square is a large shopping centre and urban development in the Sydney Central Business District.[1]
Collins Place is a large mixed-use complex in the CBD of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Designed in about 1970 by I.M.Pei and Partners, and finally completed in 1981, it was Melbourne's first and Australia's largest mixed use project, including basement car-parking, a shopping plaza with professional suites, cinemas and a nightclub in the lower levels, and offices and a high-rise hotel in a pair of towers above.
The Melbourne central business district in Australia is home to numerous lanes and arcades. Often called "laneways", these narrow streets and pedestrian paths date mostly from the Victorian era, and are a popular cultural attraction for their cafes, bars and street art.
The architecture of Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria and second most populous city in Australia, is characterised by a wide variety of styles dating from the early years of European settlement to the present day. The city is particularly noted for its mix of Victorian architecture and modern buildings, with 52 skyscrapers in the city centre, the most of any city in the Southern Hemisphere.
Emporium Melbourne is a luxury shopping centre on the corner of Lonsdale and Swanston streets in Melbourne, Australia. Occupying the former Lonsdale Street site of Myer's Melbourne store, Emporium opened in 2014 following extensive redevelopment. The centre includes a food court, specialty stores and several multi-level anchor retailers, as well as a top floor extension of Myer's Bourke Street store. Emporium forms part of a 188,000 square metres (2,020,000 sq ft) precinct of linked shopping centres in the Melbourne central business district, which also includes the Myer and David Jones city stores, Melbourne Central, General Post Office and Elizabeth Street's The Strand.
The Hotel Australia was a former hotel in Melbourne, Australia. The hotel was built in 1939 on the site of the former Cafe Australia, and was demolished in 1989.
Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, Australia, was an important Victorian-era city and erected "some of the world's most majestic buildings" of the era. Several buildings survive from the period, including the State Library of Victoria (1856), Parliament House (1856), the General Post Office, the Royal Exhibition Building (1880), the Windsor Hotel (1884), the Block Arcade (1893), and the Rialto Building Group (1888–1891). However, many of the well-known architectural gems of Melbourne's Victorian central city were demolished in the 20th century. Some were lost in preparation for the 1956 Summer Olympics when Melbourne sought to reinvent itself as a modern, post-war city. Whelan's or Whelan the Wrecker was a well-known demolition company that was responsible for at least thirty of these demolitions, many at the instruction of the Melbourne City Council.
The overall aim is to improve the connection between Melbourne Central and Flinders Street railway stations through more north-south links such as Degraves Street, Australia on Collins, and the Causeway Arcade.