Stunned business owners feel the pain after Toombul Shopping Centre’s permanent closure

Tenants of the flood-ravaged Toombul Shopping Centre have described its permanent closure as ‘mourning a death in the family’ as they face the prospect of losing millions.

Stunned business owners are picking up the pieces after giant Mirvac’s decision to close flood-ravaged Toombul Shopping Centre.

Up to 130 businesses – ranging from national to small operations – were told on Wednesday that their leases have been terminated, three months after the February floods which closed the 54 year-old shopping centre.

The floods and closure have potentially cost business owners tens of millions of dollars with many facing the prospect of not being adequately insured.

40+ PICS: Toombul Shopping Centre through the years

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In a Zoom meeting the ASX-listed Mirvac offered thanks to tenants but no compensation for business owners who have demolition clauses in their leases which clear the way for them to be terminated.

Toombul Skin & Beauty owner Giuliana Gi Michele had been in the shopping centre for 29 years and said insurers were still assessing her claim.

She said the closure of the shopping centre felt like a death in the family.

“I must be naive but I really thought they would rebuild it. I know its broken but with Mirvac being such an iconic Australian brand I thought they would look after us,” she said.

“I’m still processing it. It’s 29 years of my life. It’s like we are in mourning. It’s like a death in the family. It was a real community and a nice place to be and work.”

The clean up at Toombul Shopping Centre. Picture: Liam Kidston

Ms Gi Michele said the company told them nothing more in the Zoom meeting than what was in the original email on Wednesday.

“Nothing was offered. It was basically a thankyou for being patient with us and assisting us through the decontamination phase and thankyou for your partnership,” she said.

“They had asked us to have individual meetings with them.”

The ASX-listed company told tenants on Wednesday that following careful consideration of the extent of the damage and the risk of future flooding, “it has been determined impractical and undesirable to reinstate the centre to how it was prior to the flooding damage.”

“To provide our retailers with certainty we have taken the difficult decision to close Toombul shopping centre and terminate all leases,” it said in an email to tenants.

National Retail Association chief executive Dominique Lamb said tenants have done it tough.

“They have employees and lost their fit-outs, stock and more and at the end of the day you would hope the majority of them would be able to access their insurance but we know that with insurance companies there are usually delays,” she said.

“It also depends upon the business, how well insured they are and their relationship with the landlord. It’s very unlikely that a small business would have the same insurance as a major retailer.”

National Retail Association chief executive Dominique Lambr.

Owner of Fruits of Eden, Elenis Pippos, said she was one of the few fortunate survivors that will come out of this devastation afloat.

“We were one of the lucky retailers that were covered with flood insurance, but 95 per cent were not and have no choice but to take the loss,” Ms Pippos said.

“A lot of people lost their jobs because of all this. Having a lot of small businesses in there we were unable to just relocate our staff to other shops.”

Luisa Laurito, whose father started the business at Toombul Shopping Centre when it opened in 1967, relocated in March to Ascot with business partners John and Vince.

She said she was “a bit taken back by it all.”

“I’m still trying to get my head around it. There’s so much going on,” she said.

“We started in the Toombul Shopping Centre in 1967 and we’ve had it for 54 years and on the 10th of October it would have been 55 years.

“But we don’t have a leg to stand on. We will have cop it.”