Adelaide retailers hoping Rundle Place will be the place to shop
Adelaide retailers will be hoping the $385 million Rundle Place development, six years in the making and which opened this week, will draw more shoppers into the CBD.
Rundle Place features 85 shops over 22,000 square metres of retail space running between Grenfell Street and Rundle Mall as well as an 11-storey office tower covering 30,000 square metres pre-leased to the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, scheduled to open in October.
The main entrance to the new centre is at 81 Rundle Mall.
It will boast some retail firsts for Adelaide including three Canadian retailers as well as Ted Baker, Seduce, Peter Jackson and Vince Camuto stores.
It will also feature a flagship Harris Scarfe store, a Coles supermarket as anchor tenant, along with a mix of other retailers and a 500-seat food court.
CBRE reported Rundle Place as being 95% leased late last year, but warned that the Adelaide CBD was likely to see an increase in the vacancy rate during the first half of 2013.
"There are two reasons for this. Firstly, that there are currently several sites which are being marketed for lease, but are still occupied by the current tenant and they are likely to vacate in the first half of 2013," CBRE says.
"Secondly, there are several tenants which currently occupy space on Rundle Mall which will move to the new accommodation in the Rundle Place development when it is completed in March 2013.
"This is likely to result in very limited growth in rentals in the CBD and depending on how much vacancy eventuates and there will be a increase in the incentives landlords will need to offer to attract a tenant."
CBRE reported Rundle Mall, Adelaide's prime retail strip, as having a vacancy rate 5.3% in October 2012. The vacancy rate had increased from 3.11% in June 2012.
Rundle Mall is anchored by Myer and David Jones and is located between Pulteney Street and King William Street.
The Myer Centre includes a 35,000-square-metre Myer store as well as 105 specialty shops and the Adelaide Central Plaza houses David Jones and 43 specialty retails.
Annual rents in Rundle Mall range from $2,400 per square metre to $4,000 per square metre, according to CBRE.
The vacancy rate in more affordable Rundle Street remains relatively low, having decreased to 1.94% in February 2013 from 2.91% in the second half of 2012.
Rundle Street, the fashion and food precinct, located between East Terrace and Pulteney Street, is anchored by a two-level Target store and Rundle Street East boasts designer stores such as Sass and Bide, Marcs and Lisa Ho.
Annual rents on Rundle Street range from $400 to $1,200 per square metre.
