Boutique caterer Blakes Feast is the newest addition to Church Street, Brighton, which has continues to attract high-quality tenants and maintain its Melbourne-low vacancy rate.
Fitzroys’ Tom Fisher negotiated the 5+5-year lease of 111 Church Street at $70,000 per annum net on behalf of a private investor. The dual-level 110sqm building will be home to the business’s second Blakeaway site, from where prepared meals, breads, pastries and other daily items will be available for easy delivery or takeaway.
Blakeaway was launched in 2020 to offer prepared meals from Blakes Feast kitchens as Melburnians endured the first lockdowns of the pandemic. Initially available only online, Blakeaway is now looking to expand across Melbourne and capture established markets with a more readily accessible service.
“This deal reflects the huge take-up of space along shopping strips by food and beverage operators, and the ongoing demand from quality tenants for a prized space within Church Street, Brighton and its affluent, established catchment,” Fisher said.
“The huge shift in enquiry and leasing deals towards food and beverage operators seen with the arrival of COVID has continued through 2021. Demand for takeaway and delivery services has surged while Melburnians go through intermittent lockdowns,” he said.
Some 50% of leases struck by Fitzroys along Melbourne’s shopping strips this year have been to food and beverage operators, well above the average food and beverage presence of 28.4% Melbourne-wide, according to Fitzroys’ new Walk the Strip report.
“Hospitality operators have been snapping up small spaces for lease that allow them to quickly expand and establish themselves in new markets. While Blakeaway has been available online, it is opening bricks and mortar stores to make it more readily accessible to receptive catchments,” Fisher said.
Fitzroys’ Walk the Strip report also showed that Church Street, Brighton’s vacancy rate has come down throughout the COVID period to just 0.7%, the sharpest across Melbourne. Fisher said the long-term lease was yet another example of the high regard and unwavering confidence retailers have for Church Street.
“The evergreen strip has continued to perform strongly during the COVID period due to its its tightly-held nature, excellent tenancy mix, constrained supply, and positioning within one of Melbourne’s most affluent and established consumer catchments,” he said.
“There is always a long queue of retailers and operators seeking space.”
Fisher recently negotiated the five-year lease of 88 Church Street to minimalist fashion design label Assembly. Major tenants throughout the strip include famous Dendy cinema complex, and amongst other leading retailers including Scanlan & Theodore, Country Road, Husk, Sportscraft, Saba, Flanel, Seed, major banks, and national and local food and beverage traders.
Fisher added that the immediate catchment has been bolstered with the introduction of medium-density residential developments in what is broadly a low-rise suburb, and the suburb is home to a number of highly sought after private schools.