The Commercial Bay fashion mix encompasses international brands, new to market and local labels. The precinct places a spotlight on Kiwi designers with the creation of ‘Little Queen Street’, a retail laneway that showcases a selection of homegrown designers. The name Little Queen Street is a nod to the city’s past, with materials from the original site being used throughout the laneway, incorporated by architects Warren & Mahoney. These thoughtful details add to the overall feel of Commercial Bay. The carefully curated mix also introduces several first to market global brands, from the likes of Scotch & Soda, Tommy Hilfiger, Furla, Kate Spade.
Ground floor female fashion & cosmetics were targeted, and early adopters included H&M as anchor, COS, plus new entrants Tommy Hilfiger, Scotch & Soda, Sandro Paris, Maje, Husk, AJE, Dior Cosmetics and Kate Spade. It was critical to maintain a valuable point of difference from the rest of the city centre retail and suburban retail centres/offerings.
This achievement was enhanced by securing key tenants in prominent sites at the most visual laneway intersections fusing international & iconic New Zealand brands.
On level one the mix was targeted at menswear, athleisure & unisex fashion with some general merchandise that could service the office workers located in the towers above. A major outcome was securing Ripcurl, ASICS, RM Williams, General Pants, Herschel & new to market brands such as Edmund Hillary and Just Another Fisherman in a tight mix cluster.
Match put together a unique and exciting health and beauty offering, with a dedicated beauty cluster located on Level two, adjacent to Harbour Eats. Beauty treatments, nails and hair are all available. Australian beauty powerhouse Mecca joined the line-up, as well as French fashion label Dior with Dior Perfumes and Beauty, its first NZ Boutique. The line-up is unique and provides the option to get all of your beauty and health fixes in one spot.
Project Value: $1 billion
Size: 18,000 sqm
Key Achievements (unique challenges): Master planning a cutting-edge laneway concept and executing a unique retail mix, delivering flagships new to market international retail and bespoke food offers
Workstreams: Masterplanning, tenancy mix, development consultancy and project leasing
Paul Reid, Director, The Icon Group