Chapel Street loses allure as fashion destination

IT was once the street where celebs shopped til they dropped, but these days Chapel St in South Yarra is a ghost town. What went wrong?

Larry Kestelman says Chappel St businesses need to evolve. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

CHAPELLI, the street where celebs shopped until they dropped, has lost its allure.

Cashed-up kids did “laps on Chaps” as they ogled the girls who swished by ogling the celebs.

Now Chapel St in South Yarra is becoming a ghost strip as lease signs adorn the windows where fashionistas spent tens of thousands of dollars.

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When Kim Kardashian, Kylie Minogue, Pink and Lady Gaga arrived, lagged as they stepped off private jets, retail therapy on Chapelli revived them.

Now “vertical is vital” and whingey businesses need to move with the times, says property entrepreneur Larry Kestelman, who will open his much-hyped Capitol Grand precinct in early 2019.

Chapel St was once a lure for celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. Picture: Mark Stewart

Kestelman splashed out the dollars to bring out Charlize Theron to boost the $500-million development on the corner of Chapel St and Toorak Rd.

The visionary entrepreneur says businesses whining about high rents on Chapel St must “evolve”.

“It is no longer a fashion destination,” Kestelman told Page 13.

“If I were a retailer looking to move in, I’d be looking at what the local economy needs. There is no shortage of people or money in that area.”

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Kestelman says the rise in vertical living in the area has people “with high disposable income flooding in.”

He says Sydney’s famed Oxford St went through a similar collapse and has evolved into a service-based industry catering to the new high-rise dwellers.

“It’s absolutely horses for courses. People shouldn’t look at what it used to be, but what it is now,” Kestelman said.

Movers and shakers like Kestelman see an opportunity where others are wringing their hands.

@AliceHeraldSun

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