Melbourne shopping strips hit hardest post-lockdown revealed

Months of forced closure and strict lockdown-induced restrictions have seen Melbourne’s best-known thoroughfares hit hard. Here are those worst affected.

Chapel Street is morphing from a fashion Mecca to Melbourne’s go-to destination for health and wellness.

Ten health and wellness businesses have opened along the South Yarra strip over recent weeks, the latest a medicinal cannabis boutique chemist.

Chapel Street Precinct Association general manager Chrissie Maus said the new arrival was part of a different breed of business on the strip, once Melbourne’s most iconic spot to shop and be seen.

“Most of the new businesses opening are in the health and fitness, or health and wellness sector,’’ Ms Maus said. “We’re also seeing a significant amount of food, so that’s bars, restaurants and cafes.”

Chemist Lisa Ngyuen at her boutique medicinal cannabis pharmacy in South Yarra. Picture: David Geraghty

Chapel Street has been battling a retail downturn as consumers turn to online shop­ping and shopping centres.

In the past year, 48 businesses have shut on the once bustling thoroughfare. But more than 60 businesses opened over the same period — creating a new mix of fashion, food and fitness not found anywhere else.

Ms Maus said she was optimistic the precinct was in the throes of a resurgence.

“We’ve seen an increase in foot traffic, which is also increasing again and we’re seeing a spike from 4pm onwards,’’ she said. “So our night-time economy is the best it’s been in a decade and we’re seeing a resurgence of the street and a real lifestyle change in the precinct mix.

“Twenty years ago we may have been known for fashion. Bring it now to 2021, we have a great unique fashion offering, we still have some incredible unique boutiques, which bring people in from around Australia. But right now the reasons people are coming to Chapel Street are changing and that reason is lifestyle.

“We know after COVID that people want to hang out and see their friends. We know, given that the foot traffic is spiking after 4pm, people are enjoying getting out of the house and getting on the beers, as Dan Andrews would say.”

Designer Arthur Galan outside his Chapel St store. Picture: Jason Edwards

Pharmacist Lisa Nguyen, who last week opened Australia’s first dispensary specialising in cannabinoid medi­cines, said Chapel Street was a natural location because of its proximity to medical clinics and the demograph­ic of the neighbourhood.

The business, called Astrid, is three doors up from iconic Cafe e Cucina and opposite boutiques Scanlan Theodore and Arthur Galan.

“Medical cannabis is quite expensive and so a lot of clinics are located scattered throughout South Yarra and Toorak,” Ms Nguyen said. “We’re a boutique pharmacy where we spe­c­ialise in medicinal cannabis. I realised the gap was patient access and patient education.

“What we do is educate patients on medical cannabis, we link patients to medical cannabis, we assess them for eligibility, so whether they have chronic pain or anxiety or whatever it is, we assess them. Then, if they meet the criteria, we link them up with one of our doctors.”

Richard Jenkins, co-founder and director of Plan1 Project Management & Consult­ancy, said Chapel Street was one of the only suburban shopping strips to hold steady on vacancy rates in COVID but the retail mix was shifting.

Chapel Street has been struggling for several years due to high rents pushing out retailers. Picture: Wayne Taylor

“With fashion retailers moving out of the iconic strips, increasingly the precincts are becoming more diverse, with vacant shops leased as office space, education uses, health and wellbeing and even residential,” he said.

Designer Arthur Galan, who has had his menswear store on Chapel Street since 1998, was optimistic the strip was on the verge of a resurgence after struggling through several years surrounded by vacant shop fronts.

“With rents coming down it gives us an opportunity for Chapel Street to come back to what it was before the rents went crazy,” he said.

LATEST CHAPEL ST STORES TO OPEN

Astrid Pharmacy (South Yarra)

1R Australia (South Yarra)

Love Athletica (South Yarra – rooftop pilates)

Vicious Cycle (Windsor)

Boulder Project (Prahran)

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