Parisian-style retail shopping coming to Newmarket

Forget Ponsonby. Auckland City. Wellington's Lambton Quay or Dunedin's homegrown boutique district.

Retailing giant Westfield says that Newmarket will be New Zealand's premier shopping district with the opening of the innovative Nuffield Street area.

Twenty-eight specialist stores focusing on big label fashion and homewares will open in late August covering an area of 5235sq m - just two months after mega-mall Sylvia Park opens a few kilometres away in Mt Wellington.

Australian fashion heavyweight Alannah Hill will open her first New Zealand store on Nuffield St and home-grown clothes designer Trelise Cooper will launch a concept store to house her new collection for little girls from the ages of 2 to 8.

Cooper says she believes Nuffield St will be the most important shopping district in New Zealand, and from a retailers' point of view, is worth every dollar.

"It will be a tree-lined street - the rents are reasonable - with an eclectic range of retailers including the new, and up-and-coming. It will be the Paris of New Zealand," the New Zealand designer says.

Her new girls' range is a natural progression from her other collections for women.

"It reflects the ages between 2 and 8 - a time of fantasy, of innocence, fairies and princesses," she says.

The retail street is also attracting good office tenants to the area.

Sony and Watercare will be relocating their head offices above the Nuffield St stores later this year.

Westfield is building a carpark for 270 cars off the street, expected to be completed before the launch in August.

Westfield New Zealand director John Widdup says Nuffield St will be a very different shopping experience to the typical mall as the stores have open street frontages, the street is tree-lined, and many stores are working to bring out the special features of the buildings.

Widdup says he has applied "shopping centre principles" to the main street so all stores have a consistency in layout and target market.

The district is very different from the Sylvia Park mega-mall development at the foot of Hamlin Hill in Mt Wellington which is due to open on June 8.

"Sylvia Park is made up of big box retail like supermarkets and The Warehouse but Nuffield St is specifically targeting high-end retail... It will be the first development on this kind of scale seen in New Zealand," Widdup says.

Newmarket Business Association general manager Cameron Brewer says competition for consumer's disposable income is rapidly growing as the New Zealand dollar softens and the retail sector continues to develop.

But Widdup says despite the fall in the dollar, Westfield has reported strong national retail figures for March and for the quarter up to March.

"It will be interesting to compare this with the national average," Widdup says.

He is cautious on why exactly Westfield is experiencing this trend.

"Consumers are voting with their feet... In NZ you are really competing for the discretionary dollar and the retail industry is getting a growing proportion of peoples' disposable income," he says.

But that doesn't mean he will take Westfield's strong retail portfolio for granted.

He will still keep a close eye on competition, which is growing in Auckland with several mall developments underway.

He says "naturally everyone will go and have a look at the Sylvia Park development" which is about 10 minutes by car from Newmarket.

"We will be very interested to see without anchor tenants such as The Warehouse and supermarkets, how Nuffield St will go."

Brewer says competition from Sylvia Park is a concern as the mall is strategically placed to operate alongside the railway and has access to the south-east corner of Auckland - the region with the fastest growing population.

But Brewer thinks consumers from the eastern bays will go for a "nosy" and soon discover that the "Pak 'N Saves and The Warehouse types of shop" can be found in their own area.

"Country Road is going into Sylvia Park so that's a first-class shop but it will never compete with Newmarket. Newmarket has a particular ambience and energy catering to the discerning and serious shopper," he says.

It is also next to the main trunk line and connected to half a dozen arterial roads, Brewer says.

Brewer has labelled Ponsonby Rd's growing fashion retail sector as the "greatest threat" to Newmarket, with the opening of a major Zambesi store last December and ample space for retail development.

Westfield has split its developments in Newmarket into three components; first the development of Nuffield St, then the expansion of the mall 277, and lastly the expansion of the historic Levene's site, with different retail offerings in each.

New Nuffield St arrivals are looking forward to their store openings.

Fashion company Alannah Hill spokesman Andrew Peterson says Westfield has concentrated on achieving a structured and suitable tenant mix.

"It's not too big... a lot of thought has been put behind who will be invited to lease the shop and where they may be placed," says Peterson.

The Alannah Hill store will feature textured wallpaper, marble floor with woven rugs and chandeliers to best show off the new collection.

Nest spokesman Bruce McKinnon says it is relocating to a larger store in Nuffield St with an expanded product range and working with designer Adrian Nancekivell to highlight the special features of the building.

Cooper's new retail store selling fashion for girls under the age of 8 years opens following the recent successful launch of her children's collection in Australasia.

Cooper has sold the new range to several fashion houses in Australia including the major department store David Jones.

"I had a very good response. I am really excited about it, as you don't know how a collection will sell until you have shown it," Cooper says.

"It is full of grungy, fantasy pieces including military jackets, striped jackets and 1950s embroidered reversible jackets," says Cooper.

The designer stopped the collection at 8 years because of the wide economy of scale with doing a children's range, she says.

There are seven sizes in the collection already, Cooper says.

Australian fashion designers Colette Dinnigan, Leona Edmonson and Fiona Scanlon also launched girls fashion collections at shows two weeks ago, says Cooper.

She is also launching a jewellery collection in August and a bedding line early next year.

The designer is working with Saatchi & Saatchi's global chief executive of design David Lockwood on the interior features of the store.