Coming soon to Auckland: Customers wait in line outside an Apple store in San Francisco. Photo / Getty Images
Coming soon to Auckland: Customers wait in line outside an Apple store in San Francisco. Photo / Getty Images
Apple, Tiffany, Zara, Ikea, David Jones and Marks & Spencer's are big-brand global retailers that may be eyeing Auckland for new flagship stores.
Ludo Campbell-Reid, Auckland design champion, listed these businesses as possibles for the city, following the announcement that Whitcoulls would leave its flagship store on Queen St/Victoria St corner, that Farmers would return to the CBD and shift into those premises.
"I would like to see Apple here. Tiffany - I know people are talking to them and Zara. I would like to see an Ikea in Auckland. David Jones and Marks & Spencers are all around the world and Auckland deserves its fair share of them too," he said.
"We need those brands. I remember when I came here in 2006, people said 'nobody goes to Auckland CBD to shop'. That's a load of rubbish. We have to provide a great shopping experience and I think we are," he said.
Zara in Hong Kong. The fashion retailer is said to be looking at setting up shop in Auckland. Photo / Getty Images
James Pascoe Group, which owns Whitcoulls, Farmers and 16.4 per of The Warehouse, announced the Queen St move this morning.
Kevin Turner, group chief financial officer, said Whitcoulls would stay in the CBD due its presence in the existing Downtown shopping centre premises.
However, landlord Precinct Properties has already announced Downtown will be demolished soon to make way the new 35-level $550 million Downtown Development with underground railway tunnels for the City Rail Link beneath.
Campbell-Reid said Whitcoull's plans to shrink its CBD presence was an inevitable outcome of electronic publishing and online book sales while left Unity Books on High St in a trump position.
"But people still want to read books and on paper and that's why newspapers are still picked up and read and why the Herald is read. This change is an opportunity for a better site on Queen St for Whitcoulls. Maybe the existing store is too large for the profit and a smaller more boutique location maybe better," Campbell-Reid said.
Nathan Male, director of specialist leasing business Metro Commercial, said the Whitcoulls-Farmers move was a sign of Queen St's revival.
"Queen Street and the CBD in general is the main focus for brands seeking a flagship presence. In recent times we have seen the opening of Cotton On's flagship, the much heralded opening of TopShop, the launch of footwear stores from Platypus and Sketchers and luxury brands Prada and Dior open.
"Farmers have been looking for a new site in the CBD for some time and their decision to take over the Whitcoulls store is another vote of confidence in the CBD, which will add further customer appeal to the central city. The central city retail market is buoyant and we expect other brands to launch in the CBD in the near future," Male said.
Chris Dibble, national research manager at Colliers International, said Queen St leasing activity had hotted up lately and his firm was involved in leasing the ex-ANZ premises on the corner of Vulcan Lane and Queen St. A major retailer would soon shift in there, he said.
Dibble said Precinct Properties had revealed how one big-brand store was seeking 4000sq m in the new shopping mall to be built on the Downtown site.
Although he did not know who that retailer is, it could indicate an Apple-type retailer was keen to shift to Auckland. "That would be the biggest retail operator in the CBD," Dibble said.
Last year, Mayor Len Brown named big-brand international retailers Apple and Tiffany & Co as potential candidates to open their first New Zealand stores in Auckland.
Industry expert Chris Beasleigh, retail sales and leasing national director at real estate consultancy JLL, backed him up, saying while it was still speculation, those brands and many other big names might be here soon.
