High rents, COVID blamed for Katies, Noni B Rockmans closing at Hyperdome
Three major women’s fashion outlets will close their doors for the last time at the Hyperdome next week, renewing calls for an overhaul in management and leasing deals.
Logan
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Women’s fashion outlets Noni B, Katies and Rockmans will close at the Hyperdome next week, renewing calls for an overhaul in management and leasing deals.
Mosaic Brands, which also owns Crossroads and Rivers, with outlets at the Hyperdome, said in August it had been in talks with landlords to renegotiate leases.
A Mosaic Brands spokesman said high rents and forced closures during COVID were to blame for the departures, which have also occurred at other southeast centres, including at Victoria Point.
It is expected up to 250 Mosaic brand stores will close across the country by July with up to 500 of the 1300-plus portfolio closing over the next two years.
A spokesman for Mosaic Brands blamed large shopping centre landlords for not providing enough rent relief as stores struggled with the impact of COVID-19.
The news sent shockwaves through the local Logan shopping community with many angry that leasing deals at the state-owned Hyperdome could have been more lenient during the pandemic.
HYPERDOME OPEN AFTER COVID CASE
Rival department store owner Westfield has also ruled out any plans to buy the ageing centre, which is owned by the state government’s Queensland Investment Corporation.
Loganholme shopper Karyn Telfer complained that local jobs would be lost along with some of the few retail fashion outlets for mature women.
“Women from Logan who want to shop at Katies, Noni B or Rockmans will now have to travel to Carindale or Garden City,” she said.
“But if Westfield did buy the store, then we would all have to start paying to park to shop.”
Plans were also afoot for the closure of some Mosaic stores at Garden City, including Noni B, which closed its Victoria Point store in December.
Sizzlers, Taste of India and a range of retail outlets including Bi-lo have left the centre.
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