‘Ghost town’ Brisbane CBD sees more shop closures including at Myer Centre
The Myer Centre has been hit by another spate of shop closures, forcing owners to cut $40m from the property’s value, while many offices in the Brisbane CBD remain 70 per cent empty in the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
QLD Business
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Parts of the Brisbane CBD have been likened to a “ghost town” with large office towers up to 70 per cent empty, forcing more shops to the wall as retail spending slumps.
Among the hardest hit retail precinct is the Myer Centre which relies on a steady stream of office commuters arriving and departing from its basement bus terminus.
Krispy Kreme and tobacco products chain Cignall recently shut their outlets in the lower floor of the Queens St centre in recent weeks joining at least a dozen other empty shops in the upper floors of the 32-year-old Myer Centre.
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Shopping centre operator Vicinity, which owns a 25 per cent stake in the centre, last month wrote down the value of the centre by $40 million to $140 million as the pandemic hit the retail sector across the country. The value of the nearby Queens Plaza, which is owned 100 per cent by Vicinity, was cut from $790m to $700m.
Besides Krispy Kreme other big name brands that have exited the Myer Centre now include Best&Less, General Pants and Red Rooster.
QUT retail expert Dr Gary Mortimer said a large proportion of office workers were still working from home, depriving the Myer Centre of many customers.
“There is a large bus station in the basement and few commuters means fewer people walking through the centre each day,” said Dr Mortimer. “You go down George St and it’s like a ghost town these days.” Tourist numbers also had slumped.
JLL senior director and head of office leasing Adam Barrett said that across the wider CBD market office buildings on average were occupied anywhere between 30 and 40 per cent.
“The major corporates — Telstra, banks, BHP, Rio Tinto, all of those institutions, are the ones that aren’t back in the workplace,” said Mr Barrett. “All the big accounting and legal firms are only at a maximum 50 per cent occupied. However, at the smaller end it’s fair to say a lot of them didn’t move out or stop.”
Vicinity shopping centres director Justin Blumfield said in July that Brisbane’s CBD retail precincts had been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Being located in Brisbane’s CBD, the Myer Centre was especially affected with a sharp decline in visitation as restrictions meant customers and CBD workers stayed home,” said Mr Blumfield. Mr Blumfield said in July there were early signs of a recovery in centre visitation, as some restrictions were eased
Vicinity has approximately 95 per cent of retailers open across its Queensland portfolio, including 92 per cent at the Myer Centre.
Dr Mortimer said that the centre’s problems predated the coronavirus pandemic and the opening of fresh retail offerings in the nearby Queen’s Wharf project in coming years may be the “final nail in its coffin.”
Deloitte says Australian retailers are facing a volatile retail environment, with monthly swings
in spending.
“There will be a reason to go to Queen’s Wharf because it will have bars and restaurants,” said Dr Mortimer.
He said the centre’s problems stemmed partly from its design that funnelled customers up and down a series of escalators. Traders in the centre have told The Courier-Mail that business remains slow as the pandemic shutdown continues to bite.