Gourmet delight as top-line IGA to replace bayside Harvey Norman
A popular bayside Harvey Norman store has shut after a leasing dispute, with shoppers and gourmet lovers excited about its replacement. SEE THE VIDEO
Redlands Coast
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A popular bayside Harvey Norman outlet which shut its doors after a leasing dispute at a busy strip of shops last week will be replaced by an up-market IGA.
The new IGA store will be an entertainer’s delight complete with a massive dedicated cheese fridge which will stock more than 300 varieties.
It will also include a continental butcher with shoppers able to ask for particular cuts of meat from an in-house deli..
IGA director and chief operations officer Greg Weiss said owners of the centre had approached him in January about moving into the larger store site.
Mr Weiss said when the IGA opened in Wellington St, it was Redland city’s top gourmet grocer, before the chain opened a super store at Mt Cotton in 2018, growing its reputation after installing a dedicated cheese room stocking over 300 varieties.
“The new store is about 1600 sqm which is about 500 sqm larger than the current IGA site and will also be a gourmet outlet,” Mr Weiss said.
“We don’t have any particulars yet as to who will come into our vacated site but we will move into Harvey Norman on November 1 or December 1.
“Our new building will be state of the art and will be really gourmet, similar to our store at East Brisbane.”
The IGA store at Mt Cotton is owned by Redlands’ Jones family and is not connected to the Cleveland chain.
Mr Weiss said he had hired some of the staff from the closed Harvey Norman store.
Harvey Norman at Wellington St, Ormiston, closed on June 30 after the owner of the centre did not renew its lease.
A note on the front door of the store says “Due to the end of lease, this complex is now not operating”.
A Harvey Norman spokesman said the store was a franchise and had been successfully operating at the site, anchored by IGA, since 2014.
“It is unfortunate but the lease was expiring and the landlord was going to jack up the rent,” the spokesman said.
“The franchisee will not be reopening the store again — it’s what can happen if Gerry (Harvey) does not own the centre.”
Former staff at Harvey Norman, who could not be named, said the Brisbane-based owner of the complex, had wanted to renovate the site and was going to put up the rent.
The former staff member said Harvey Norman had not wanted to move.
It is believed the lease Harvey Norman signed with the centre owner in 2013 had expired and was being renewed on a month-by-month basis.
In the past week, the store has been gutted with IGA planning to move into the site on November 1.
It is likely that a Dan Murphy’s liquor retail outlet will move into the current IGA site, despite a First Choice Liquor Market outlet less than 200m away.
The global furniture chain’s second-half sales reflected the economic impact of Covid.
Sales were up 17.5 per cent in the second half of the financial year to May 31, compared with the same period last year.
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