In a landmark transaction with GIC about a year ago, Vicinity Centres gained a 50% stake in the iconic QVB retail centre, as well as The Strand and The Galeries. With QVB celebrating their 120 year birthday in August this year. Vicinity centres have now announced they will take QVB to the next level with new brands adding to the mix – to be announced in the coming months.

Vicinity Centres now has a unique and unrivalled CBD exposure, with premium centres across three of Australia’s busiest CBDs – the Galeries and The Strand in Sydney, Emporium Melbourne and QueensPlaza and Myer Centre in Brisbane.

“We will continue to evolve QVB as a premium and luxury retailer destination and continue to introduce and actively remix the centre with key new premium retailers. This will complement our existing successful brands and create a world-class shopping experience, cementing QVB’s long term position in the Sydney CBD” said Grant Kelley, CEO of Vicinity

More than 33 million people visit the QVB each year, supported by Town Hall Station – one of Sydney’s busiest – which services 15,000 commuters via the QVB lower ground floor each day.

“Future opportunities for the QVB are around creating a ‘night-time economy’ and potentially exploring the creation of external-facing ground floor tenancies.” he said

The QVB is a consistent top performer in the SCN CBD Guns with total MAT placing them in the top 3 in Australia, at $289 million and ranked second for both MAT/m2 and specialty MAT/m2 sitting at a whopping $26,605m2. The centre’s specialty sales (MAT) is currently sitting at $249 million up 2.8% on last year. QVB is 81% more ‘productive’ than other specialty shopping centres in Australian CBDs (compared to Urbis average specialty sales $14,713/m2).

“We have seen significant growth in recent months from campaigns for Lunar New Year and during the QVB’s 120-year celebrations in July and August. Key moments such as cultural holidays, celebrations and milestones are key to the QVB’s calendar to ensure we are reaching our broad range of customers and enhancing their experience.” Kelley continued.

The QVB is one of the most visited buildings in Sydney and we know 42% of customers come from outside the primary trade area, which includes millions of international tourists. QVB has a very extensive trade area encompassing inner-suburban singles and couples as well as more established affluent families. Incomes are around 10% higher than the Sydney average ($106K vs $95K Syd av.) with incomes highest in the primary trade area.

There is a notable skew towards Australians of Asian background. Trade area encompassing three large and growing consumer groups – workers 337,500 (+1.3%), residents 3.2m (+1.4%), tourists 33m (+6.9%).

67% of Chinese visitors to QVB were tourists rather than residents of Australia with 36% of these Chinese customers coming to the QVB to buy a certain item.

Jewellery is among the strongest performing categories at the QVB. General retail is trading well above our ‘flagship’ average, with Mecca Maxima and Lush some of the drawcards for our international customers.

Once construction of Sydney CBD’s light rail is complete, the light rail will carry 9,000 people through the CBD, each direction, every hour. The installation of light rail will move three times as many people around the QVB than previous bus services, with services stopping outside the QVB every two to three minutes.

In coming months Vicinity will announce several new luxury and fashion stores opening at the QVB to add to its unique collection of more than 160 retailers and boutiques.

Celebrating a 120 year history