Collin Street Entrance (Christmas 2018)Lower Ground ShopsGround Floor Shops
260 Collins (formerly St Collins Lane) is a CBD shopping centre prominently located between Collins Street and Little Collins Street in the heart of Melbourne’s prime retail corridor bordered by La Trobe Street to the North, Swanston Street to the East, Flinders Street to the South and Elizabeth Street to the West.
Starting in the late 1870s, this block of Collins Street was home to the city's most fashionable stores, such as milliners, glove-importers, portrait painters, photographers and hairdressers. Businesses such as George's Emporium, Allan's and Glen's music and Mullens' Bookshop and Lending Library drew the cream of Melbourne society. The act of promenading here became a social pastime, known as ‘doing the block’, and the street became known simply as "The Block", a title taken up by the Block Arcade, built 1890–93.[1] Gunstler's Cafe (at about 280 Collins Street) was established in 1879 and was amongst the most fashionable restaurants in the city. In 1890 it was renamed the Vienna Café, which in 1908 was purchased by Greek Australian restaurateur Antony J. Lucas.[2] During World War I the name of the cafe became controversial, and Lucas responded by expanding and completely rebuilding the interior in 1916, and it reopened as the Cafe Australia, the finest tea-room in the city.[3] Designed by US trained architect Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, it was their first completed major work in their adopted country, and featured fountains, sculpture, planting, indirect lighting, and their distinctive intricate geometric detailing. In the late 1930s, the Cafe was demolished and replaced by the Hotel Australia, completed in mid 1939. Designed by Leslie M. Perrott, it was a 12-storey building with 94 rooms, numerous private dining and function rooms, and was the most prestigious hotel in Melbourne in its day.[4] It included an arched-roofed ballroom which was a simplified version of the main Cafe Australia space. The hotel included two small cinemas,[5] a restaurant and bar in the basement, and a through-block shopping arcade on the ground floor which was touted as the largest in Australia, known as the Australia Arcade.[2]
In 1989, the Hotel Australia was demolished to make way for a new development, completed in 1992, the Australia on Collins shopping arcade and four star hotel.[4] The building's architecture, designed by Buchan Laid & Bawden (now the Buchan Group) was variously described as postmodern and imitating art deco style,[6] and the shopping levels were ramped up and down from the street entrances in order to maximise the number of shops, and which resulted in a confusing layout. In later years, Australia on Collins was criticised as "a poor man's temple to the great god of commercialism" and included in a list of Melbourne's worst buildings by The Age newspaper.[7] The shopping centre in this period included approximately 100 shops and a food court with space for 750 diners.[8]
In April 2014, then owners LaSalle Investment Management (LIM) announced that the "dysfunctional" centre would be closed for a redevelopment costing$30 million. Architects Ashton Raggat McDougall were engaged to improve the building's "sight lines" and to prevent customers from feeling "trapped", which resulted in the shopping levels being reduced from five levels to four, without the ramping. LIM stated that the redeveloped centre would be made up of larger stores with a focus on international brands.[8]
The redeveloped St. Collins Lane opened on 16 May 2016 and was immediately placed on the market by its owners, along with the Melbourne Novotel hotel.[9] The centre had an approximately 70% tenancy rate at opening and was hoped by its owners to rival the recently opened Emporium Melbourne on Lonsdale Street.[10]
St. Collins Lane was purchased in November 2016 by JPMorgan Asset Management for a reported price of $247 million.[11]
JP Morgan sold St Collins Lane to Credit Suisse Asset Management for about $122 million in December 2020.
Following UBS’ global bailout of Credit Suisse in March 2023, control of the fund that held the mall transferred to UBS Asset Management, with Kaipara Property Group subsequently installed as the asset and development manager.
The property has an active, value-add reposition strategy through leasing and development initiatives.
The centre has 3 flagship tenants on leases (Swatch, Birkenstock and TAG Heuer).
The centre was greatly affected by the covid lockdowns and is currently closed on 3 levels (LG, 1 and 2) as it prepares to go into redevelopment. The redevelopment of the centre is set to bring a tenancy mix more appropriate for the market and location based upon entertainment, health and everyday shopping.
Entertainment brand Kingpin has taken a 3500-square metre, 10-year lease for the lower ground and mezzanine levels of the mall that were last occupied by British department store Debenhams before its collapse in 2019.
On level two – replacing the former food court – Australian coworking and flexible office space provider Waterman Workspaces has leased a 2000-square-metre space for 10 years as its first CBD location.
^ abSpicer, Chrystopher J. "Australia Hotel". www.emelbourne.net.au. School of Historical Studies, Department of History, The University of Melbourne. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
