News & Discussion: CBD Retail

[Algernon]

Who can blame them? The Myer centre is awful with its empty upper floors, horrid escalator design and downtrodden food court. It's in desperate need of a major revamp to bring tenants and shoppers back and my feeling is the owners need Myer as an anchor tenant more than Myer needs to be in the Myer Centre.

It was designed at a time that department stores were so full of themselves that they thought people would give their left nut to spend 7 hours on a Saturday there. Times changed and the monolith hasn't. I think Myer is genuine in its threat to leave but would settle for a cut to the rent. I don't think customers in the online age would particularly miss them, especially those under 50. Department stores do a lot of things averagely, people don't have such brand loyalty that they'd give up having the best delivered to their door for a cheaper price...

[Saltwater]

If the rent gets cut that's only delaying the inevitable, because its less money going to the landlords who are then less likely to invest in the centre. I was upstairs at City Cross over the weekend, and if Harvey Norman and Rebel could be persuaded to move there's plenty of room up there, it would only be one level for a Myer but if they were to cut back to their best selling departments it could go ok. And leave the Myer Centre pretty much empty as a prime time to redevelop, involving:

- Re-configuring the escalators, to make it easier to move around without having to double-back every time
- Adding new escalators for direct access from the ground to second or even third floors, to get foot traffic up there
- Reconfigure the upper floors. Maybe convert to offices, or be brave and try something different like a bowling alley, holey moley type setup, nightclub... anything but retail, which would be condensed to the lower floors

A decent benchmark as a mall that operates well is 313 Somerset in Singapore, ironically its owned by Lendlease, and admittedly sits above an MRT station, but it does very well without any huge department stores like Myer, with a good fix of retail, food and services. And the escalators are designed to get people through, and up, quickly.

[Patrick_27]

I still frequent Myer, but more or less they are reminding me a lot of Harris Scarf in the immediate years before they left mall. Less staff about, less foot traffic and less variety. Their cosmetics section, for example, is a drop in the ocean compared to what it use to be.

I don’t think the mall as a whole would suffer too greatly from Myer leaving, it would certainly present a case for more brand specific stores in the mall precinct (that aren’t already represented in DJ’s). The biggest concern is the sheer size of leasable floor space that Myer have in the centre, no one retailer could fill that (or would want to try) and the size of the centre is too big and prominent to bulldoze and start again. I fear it would become another Rundle Mall Plaza where is exists under-utilised for many years whilst waiting for a thrifty property developer to come through with an overhaul.

[rev]

If the rent gets cut that's only delaying the inevitable, because its less money going to the landlords who are then less likely to invest in the centre. I was upstairs at City Cross over the weekend, and if Harvey Norman and Rebel could be persuaded to move there's plenty of room up there, it would only be one level for a Myer but if they were to cut back to their best selling departments it could go ok. And leave the Myer Centre pretty much empty as a prime time to redevelop, involving:

- Re-configuring the escalators, to make it easier to move around without having to double-back every time
- Adding new escalators for direct access from the ground to second or even third floors, to get foot traffic up there
- Reconfigure the upper floors. Maybe convert to offices, or be brave and try something different like a bowling alley, holey moley type setup, nightclub... anything but retail, which would be condensed to the lower floors

A decent benchmark as a mall that operates well is 313 Somerset in Singapore, ironically its owned by Lendlease, and admittedly sits above an MRT station, but it does very well without any huge department stores like Myer, with a good fix of retail, food and services. And the escalators are designed to get people through, and up, quickly.

I reckon if they brought the food court to ground level that would help, with a decent offering.

[Saltwater]

A ground floor food court would work, or even be brave and try a food court on the upper floors. From memory 313 Somerset has one on the top (5th floor) from memory, and the escalators are configured in a way that make it easy to get up there. If not a foodcourt maybe some restaurants, rooftop bars, make the most of the height and the light that comes with it and draw people up through the mall with some decent offerings like a decent sized Uniqlo.

Myer making noise is maybe trying to reduce their footprint. Say they trimmed back to two or three floors they could probably retain most of their best selling departments, cut those that are running at a loss, and require less staff operating across huge areas and the resulting perception their customer service sucks.

[Eurostar]

I dare say the way the escalators are designed is to make you walk pass other shops and persuade you to buy more. In Myer its a bit female orientated with cosmetics on ground, womens clothing on next floor, then mens and entertainment.

[Saltwater]

Yes exactly, its an antiquated design intended to increase foot traffic past shops, with people having to go up a level, and double back past a row of shops before taking the next escalator up. But all it does is piss people off so they avoid it altogether. A major redesign is required because the current approach (with a couple of slow elevators as support) just doesn't work.

[rev]

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business ... 0e50e051c3

Behind the paywall, and the usual methods aren't working.

Night-time entertainment precinct in the mall..

[AG]

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/business ... 0e50e051c3

Behind the paywall, and the usual methods aren't working.

Night-time entertainment precinct in the mall..

Archie Brothers venue on the upper floors of Rundle Place where Harris Scarfe used to be.

[SBD]

A ground floor food court would work, or even be brave and try a food court on the upper floors. From memory 313 Somerset has one on the top (5th floor) from memory, and the escalators are configured in a way that make it easy to get up there. If not a foodcourt maybe some restaurants, rooftop bars, make the most of the height and the light that comes with it and draw people up through the mall with some decent offerings like a decent sized Uniqlo.

Myer making noise is maybe trying to reduce their footprint. Say they trimmed back to two or three floors they could probably retain most of their best selling departments, cut those that are running at a loss, and require less staff operating across huge areas and the resulting perception their customer service sucks.

I think when I was a kid and went to the city with Mum, we'd have lunch in the John Martin's cafe with windows on the north side. Can any of the retail levels of the Myer Centre be opened to have windows overlooking Government House gardens?

[AndyWelsh]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Brucetiki]

I still frequent Myer, but more or less they are reminding me a lot of Harris Scarf in the immediate years before they left mall. Less staff about, less foot traffic and less variety. Their cosmetics section, for example, is a drop in the ocean compared to what it use to be.

I don’t think the mall as a whole would suffer too greatly from Myer leaving, it would certainly present a case for more brand specific stores in the mall precinct (that aren’t already represented in DJ’s). The biggest concern is the sheer size of leasable floor space that Myer have in the centre, no one retailer could fill that (or would want to try) and the size of the centre is too big and prominent to bulldoze and start again. I fear it would become another Rundle Mall Plaza where is exists under-utilised for many years whilst waiting for a thrifty property developer to come through with an overhaul.

Myer's Adelaide store isn't an orphan in that regard. I was in Sydney last week and Myer's Sydney store is a mess - especially when compared to David Jones.

[Pants]

Speaking of the Myer Centre:

New facade by the end of the year.

[Mpol02]

This looks pretty cool. I hope it executed as well as the renders.

[Llessur2002]

Weirdly, I'll miss the post-modern styling. It reminds me of my local shopping mall from my teenage years - that's been renovated too