Chapel St: Jam Factory shopping centre awaits $500 million redevelopment

Shoppers have come out in force demanding action to save a Melbourne landmark, which is slowly turning into a ghost town despite huge rebuild plans.

Work is yet to begin on the Jam Factory’s major redevelopment, signed off two years ago. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Shoppers and residents have joined traders calls to urgently overhaul a deteriorating Melbourne landmark, with fears it could soon become “irrelevant”.

South Yarra’s Jam Factory is turning into a ghost town, with reports four of its few remaining shops have shut for good since the coronavirus outbreak.

The shopping centre was set to be knocked down and replaced with a mammoth $500 million high-rise development, ticked off by Stonnington Council in April 2018.

It was set to be closed until the end of 2020 for the redevelopment, but work has not commenced and a food court and the cinemas were still open.

Readers on the Residents living in the electorate of Higgins Facebook page shared their thoughts on the state of the Jam Factory, with Johnny Childerhouse saying it was “sooo dead, but has heaps of potential”.

Tim Staker-Gunn wrote: “I feel there is a great love and appreciation for this building within the local community — we need to make it more a destination otherwise in several years it will be considered irrelevant.”

Ilja Sidoti suspected “massive rents” kept people away, while Michaela Moran felt “like a lot of Chapel St, it’s overpriced and doesn’t know its market”.

“I used to go to the movies there, but due to parking and traffic, no way.”

In a throwback to its roots as the former IXL jam headquarters, Andrew Newton said: “How about they actually make jam there? Derrr …”

Ready 2 Go Car Care manager Ryan Kuperholz said he was close to closing down his car wash in the shopping centre’s carpark.

He said food outlets Salsas and Sushi Sushi, along with two cafes, had left the centre since the coronavirus outbreak took hold.

“The shops are empty and its absolutely dead,” he said.

“The front of Chapel St is really quiet, and it’s very hard to be staffed up efficiently to handle the demand of car washes.

“There’s no passing trade and the morale among business owners is significantly down.”

Jam Factory’s owner, Newmark, who also own South Yarra’s Como Centre, planned to turn the tired retail and cinema complex into a 15-storey retail, food and entertainment hub.

An artist impression of Newmark’s proposed Jam Factory redevelopment in South Yarra. Picture: Supplied.

Leader previously revealed the State Government was trying to woo tech giants Google and Netflix to the new Jam Factory’s offices.

Chapel Street Precinct general manager Chrissie Maus said the Jam Factory redevelopment was crucial for the strip’s future and she wanted works to begin as quickly as possible.

“The sooner this renovation can get started, the better,” she said.

“We are experiencing a resurgence and new energy in our precinct and this redevelopment will only add to our momentum of a prosperous future, bringing in more people and businesses to work and live in our iconic area.”

Stonnington Council chief executive Jacqui Weatherill said Newmark’s permit for the project was still valid, and allowed construction to begin anytime before May 23, 2022.

Ms Weatherill said the council had not received any amended plans.

Broadcaster Steve Price recently said the centre had deteriorated into “a sad, lonely place”.

“Without the movie theatres you could just about knock the joint over and a proposed hotel development on the site seems to have stalled or fallen over,” he wrote.

Newmark was unable to respond to Leader’s queries by deadline due to spokesman availability.