Church Street, Brighton, is again all but fully-leased after high-end menswear retailer Rodd & Gunn selected the perennial high-performer made its Melbourne shopping strip debut.

Fitzroys’ Mark Talbot and Tom Fisher negotiated the secure five-year lease at 82 Church Street, at $150,000 per annum plus outgoings and GST following a highly competitive leasing campaign.

Rodd & Gunn is taking up the 189sqm space - a prime opportunity with unique walkway exposure - that was occupied for the past 15 years by Kookai, which has relocated to larger premises.

“This is Rodd & Gunn’s first Melbourne shopping strip location. Other sites are concession stores in Myer department stores,” Talbot said.

“It speaks volumes that Rodd & Gunn selected Church Street, Brighton for its first Melbourne shopping strip store. Church Street services one of Melbourne’s most established and affluent catchments, providing high levels of foot traffic and spending power,” he said.

“Church Street boasts a roll-call of respected and popular high-end fashion boutiques, national retailers, and eateries. There’s always a long queue of tenants trying to get into the strip, which has consistently recorded the lowest vacancy rate of all of Melbourne’s shopping strips.”

According to Fitzroys’ Walk the Strip report series, Church Street recorded the lowest vacancy rate in Melbourne in 2023, sitting at just 1.1% - well below the Melbourne average of 6.2%.

Rodd & Gunn’s tenancy is close to Assembly Label, Simone Perele, Decjuba, Edward Meller, and Elka Collective, which coincidentally were also leased by Fitzroys.

“There are clearly limited opportunities on Church Street and this property was in heavy demand. We saw a gap in the market to balance out the offering of women’s and men’s fashion,” Fisher said.

“This deal takes the strip to all but fully-leased. Melbourne’s shopping strips have demonstrated their resilience over recent years, and none more so than Church Street, Brighton,” he said.