Curating the Heart of Sydney’s Retail Scene

Retail in Sydney CBD is big business, the beating heart of the city. According to City of Sydney, in 2017, it represented more than 7,000 businesses and employed over 65,000 workers.

At the heart of Sydney’s retail scene are three iconic shopping centres - Queen Victoria Building, The Strand Arcade, and The Galeries – each possessing its own character and distinct portfolio of brands, from premium internationals to Australian favourites.

Responsible for curating the retail mix in each of the three centres are Aaron Barnes and Farzana Mokhtar who, supported by in-depth data and insights, have a keen eye as to which centre is appropriate for a particular brand and where brands may perform the best.

It could be introducing and guiding the design of eagerly anticipated international brands to QVB in the case of Polo Ralph Lauren, or helping online brands like July take its first steps into physical retail in The Galeries. Either way, Aaron and Farzana’s strategy can be felt as soon as you walk through the doors at any of the three centres.

VCX: Aaron, Farzana, can you introduce yourself and your role at Vicinity?

AB: I’m Aaron and I’m the Regional Leasing Manager for Vicinity’s three premium Sydney CBD centres; QVB, The Strand Arcade, and The Galeries. I also look after QueensPlaza up in Brisbane which is another premium centre in the Vicinity portfolio with some similarities to the three in Sydney’s CBD with regards to retail partners.

FM: And I’m, Farzana Mokhtar. I work with Aaron as a Leasing Executive for QVB, The Strand Arcade, and The Galeries, bringing to life the leasing strategy we’ve created by building strong retailer relationships and helping them create a space in which they can connect with customers.

VCX: Tell us about your respective journeys to Vicinity.

AB: I’ve been in retail leasing for much of my career – 27 years to be exact. For me, it’s the variety and diversity of the industry and leasing in particular that drives me. There are so many opportunities to learn, meet people, and do things differently.

I’ve worked across over 100 shopping centres in Australia and New Zealand, joining Vicinity in 2017 – the second time I worked for the organisation after also working here in 2006 when it was Gandel Retail Management,

Over the course of my career, I’ve been fortunate enough to travel all over Australia and the world, studying many of the best-in-class retail destinations and take great satisfaction in implementing the best of what I’ve seen at our centres in Australia.

FM: I’ve always been interested in the property industry after completing a degree in Property Economics. My career in the industry initially started in the legal field but I soon switched to leasing, taking up a role with Stockland. I think similar to Aaron, the diversity of the role and the opportunity to meet and work with such a wide range of people is really what attracted me into leasing.

I actually met Aaron for the first time in 2019 and was impressed by his lack of ego and openness despite having such deep experience and a large network.  Aaron also showed a passion for the CBD asset class, saying “it’s a great responsibility not a privilege to be entrusted with such assets”. I found it really engaging and went on to join him at Vicinity in January 2020, about eight weeks before COVID-19 took hold.

VCX: You’re responsible for curating three distinct shopping centre in Sydney CBD. How is each different, what are their identities?

AB: I’ll start with QVB as it’s one of the most recognisable buildings in Sydney and an iconic tourist destination (Travellers Choice 2023 – Top 10 of attractions worldwide).

QVB’s role in our portfolio is to be the house of Premium International Brands, premium gifting, affordable luxury, premium women’s apparel and one of the largest aggregations of Beauty and Cosmetic brands in Australia.

The stunning architecture of QVB lends itself to more premium brands and experiences, and that’s something we lean into when we support the design and fitout of spaces. When you walk into QVB it should feel special and want you to explore retailers and take pictures.

Aside from its design and history, QVB offers another major advantage to retailers in that it’s one  of the major transportation hubs in the CBD with direct connections to Town Hall station and the York Street bus interchange generating over 26 million visitations and ranked 2 for Specialty Sales out of all CBD Centres in Australia.

FM: The Galeries is almost the complete opposite to QVB and if you haven’t been to the centre lately, then you are in for a huge surprise. The Galeries is a lifestyle and cultural destination, that we’ve spent the past few years remixing.

Our focus for The Galeries has been to curate a roster of emerging, alternative, style-led brands across the entire centre – if you want something cutting-edge and different, head to The Galeries. That approach has enabled us to secure some exciting new brands like an Incu flagship, Venchi, Grams Cafe and Pancakes (the icon from Tokyo), July, Mejuri, Black Star Pastry, P.E. Nation, A.P.C., Ganni, Arc’teryx, New Balance (Grey – the only concept of this calibre in the whole of Australia).

One thing we’ve found satisfying is the recognition we’ve had from retailers and customers that The Galeries is truly unique. Whilst most centres follow the trend, The Galeries sets the trend and is very directional in its fashion offer with the new entrants increasing sales significantly.

AB: Which brings us to The Strand Arcade, home of the Australian Designer, bespoke artisans and craftsmen.

This first thing you feel when you walk into The Strand is like you’re immersed into an old world European market feel. From luxury watches and fragrances to one of the last remaining bespoke jewellery hubs in Australia, The Strand is unique in so many ways. 

Like QVB, much of The Strand Arcade’s character and charm comes rich heritage with period features throughout. A little known fact is that The Strand Arcade is Australia’s oldest Shopping Centre, and we recently renewed one retailer’s lease for their 84th year at the centre and another retailer for their 99^th year!

VCX: How do you decide is a brand fits best in one centre or the other?

FM: It’s all about listening. Listening to what our customer wants and listening to who the retailer appeals to. Our aim is to help retailers find the right space to connect with their customers and, whilst it’s a complicated process, we try to simplify it as much as possible.

AB: We use a combination of data insights with local market knowledge to make sure we have a holistic understanding as to what will work at each asset.

One thing we pride ourselves on is our close relationship with our retailers and having regular meetings with them is key to understanding current and future trends, and being able to identify which are sustainable and beneficial for the centre to lean into.

VCX: What has been your favourite store to open and why?

AB: Oh, that’s like asking me which one of my children is my favourite!  

If I had to narrow it down, I’d probably say Incu’s men's flagship store at The Galeries because it’s a great store, immaculately designed and has proven a hit with customers.

I’d also say July’s store at The Galeries because helping them transition from exclusively online sales to physical retail has been a fascinating journey and underlines how our Leasing team can support retailers to grow sustainably.

Finally, Sarah and Sebastian is another favourite. Located at The Strand Arcade, the store is not only popular with customers but it’s minimalist design somehow simultaneously contrasts and complements the more ornate Victorian styling of The Strand Arcade.

FM: For me, Stitch Coffee at QVB would be up there as a favourite. When we were looking at our café dining offering at QVB we did some research into the coffee habits of Sydneysiders. One thing we found was that people would go through, and almost enjoy, inconveniences and the search to find a good coffee. People liked the authenticity of searching a secret laneway rather than the ‘safe’ shopping centre environment. Armed with that knowledge, we challenged ourselves to introduce a non-shopping centre style cafe to QVB, a cafe where the real coffee snobs might go. That led us to Stitch Coffee which opened in 2023 with one of the best fitouts we’ve seen from a cafe operator in the CBD, and has gone on to prove a huge success.

I’m also a big fan of New Balance at The Galeries. Known for its cutting-edge retailers, to stand out in The Galeries, New Balance had to do something different. Their answer was to launch the only New Balance Grey Store in the southern hemisphere, offering exclusive sneaker drops, calm minimalism, and high-end retail experience.

VCX: What is the biggest challenge in your role?

AB: Farzana

FM: Aaron

(We’ll leave it there!)

VCX: How have the Sydney CBD centres evolved over the past few years, and how do you think they’ll look 10 years from now?

AB: We found that COVID-19 opened up a lot of opportunities in historically tightly held real estate, not only in Sydney but across the country. As part of the Sydney CBD recovery and attracting people back to the city, we played our part in opening new to market brands and concepts simply not available in the suburbs. That’s what retail in the city is supposed to be – something to discover, enjoy, and remember.

Post COVID-19, we have seen the flight to premium real estate, and with all three in prime locations, we are well positioned to continue the evolution of each centre. In fact, all three CBD centres came out of COVID-19 with a stronger retail mix before the pandemic started. They’re also some of the only fully leased CBD shopping centres in Australia!

VCX: Why is Vicinity’s leasing team best placed to help retailers grow and perform? Why are you the best?

FM: I think our key point of difference is that we listen, we communicate, and we don’t pretend to know everything. We want to learn and keep an open mind to understand the goals of our retail partners so that we can share our expertise and experience to help them succeed.

We are also well positioned from a portfolio point of view with Chadstone – The Fashion Capital, a strong DFO portfolio, and number of strong CBD assets across the three major Cities within Australia, so we can help retail partners expand and grow into new markets with relative ease.