Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall remains one of the most in-demand retail spaces in Australia according to Jones Lang LaSalle following an off-market lease deal done for circa $3,500sqm by Retail Leasing Negotiator Emile Traversari.
Telstra has taken the whole building at 152 Queen Street, the store previously tenanted by the retail store, Sussan. It will become Telstra’s flagship store with the company taking over the lease from September 1 on an eight-year term.
“While Sussan still had two years remaining on their lease, it was a case where we knew Telstra was in the market, and that Sussan and the landlord were happy to negotiate in the off market deal. All parties are extremely happy with the outcome,” said Traversari.
The Brisbane CBD retail market has had a fairly minor downturn this time around and is on the way back according to Jones Lang LaSalle Research Director, Leigh Warner.
“In the early 1990s, CBD retail suffered greatly and high vacancies saw rents fall sharply. But this time around it has been a shallow downturn, which reflects considerable growth in the CBD residential population and white-collar employment levels over the last 15 years”
Jones Lang LaSalle Q2 retail statistics show that the CBD retail vacancy rate was just 2.7 percent in mid-2010 and both super-prime and prime rents have not fallen at all over the past few years during the GFC. Prime CBD rents on the Queen Street Mall have risen by about 0.75 percent over the year to Q2/2010.
“The leasing environment did become very competitive and leasing incentives emerged in some cases” according to Traversari, “But there is no question demand is picking up and these incentives are being wound back.”
“Another factor that has added depth to the CBD retail market relative to 15 years ago, is its attractiveness to overseas retailers. We have seen a number of new global brands enter the Brisbane market over the last five years and the pace of this has picked up more recently due to lower growth prospects in their home markets” he said.
