Spotlight starts work on $20m flagship store in central Christchurch

Wednesday, 13 February 2019

Fabric, craft and homewares retailer Spotlight is building a $20 million flagship store in central Christchurch – its biggest outlet yet in New Zealand.

The Australian retailer is calling time on its lease at The Colombo mall in Sydenham, and hopes to be in its new store at the Harvey Norman Centre on Moorhouse Ave by Christmas.

At 5000 square metres, the new store will be twice the size of the existing outlet. Construction has just begun.

An artist's impression of Christchurch's new Spotlight store on Moorhouse Ave.

Spotlight Group owns the whole block, including the premises of tenants Harvey Norman and CityFitness gym. Further buildings, demolished after the earthquakes, previously held stores including Freedom Furniture and Moorhouse Furniture and the Rialto cinema.

**READ MORE:

Zac Fried on the site of the news Spotlight development on Moorhouse Ave, Christchurch.

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* Spotlight spends $10m on new store in Paraparaumu

The Harvey Norman Centre before the earthquakes.

* New Moorhouse development continues central Christchurch street's retail growth**

The new building will house Spotlight on the second level, with two other homeware-type stores yet to be named on the ground floor, and a glass foyer. It will extend from opposite the Harvey Norman store to Durham St.

The development will also include a new frontage for Harvey Norman, plus a new cafe, entranceway, and more parking.

Spotlight Group owns the chain of Spotlight 130 outlets in four countries, which grew from a fabric market stall in the 1970s, plus 51 Anaconda outdoor gear stores in Australia and 60 property investments, and employs 7500 staff.

It is owned by the rich-listed Melbourne billionaire family variously called either Fried or Fraid after some anglicised the spelling.

Executive deputy chairman Zac Fried, visiting Christchurch this week to check on progress, said they were very excited to at last be building in the city after owning the property for 13 years.

'We are pushing ahead quite fast, it's taken long enough and I just want to get it open.

'Our other shop is pretty old, and tight with narrow aisles. This will be big – it will be quite surprising to people.'

Fried said the new store would have expanded ranges, especially of home interior and home decorating items, craft goods and party products.

Previous plans to build a multi-level shopping centre on the site were stymied by the costs of building in Christchurch, Fried said.

They then opted for the current two-level building, being built by local company Calder Stewart to a local design.

Spotlight Group has also recently established new stores in Pukekohe, south of Auckland, and in Queenstown, and will build in Wellington next year. It is also expanding in Southeast Asia.

'We are positive about the New Zealand market, from a retail point of view.

'In retail you cannot just stand still, you have to keep evolving,' Fried said.

Spotlight opened the Sydenham store, its first in the city, in 1997 in what was then Spotlight Plaza, now The Colombo. It also tried to buy the mall itself, but when it missed out it bought the Harvey Norman Centre instead as an investment in 2006.

Spotlight may sublet its old premises in The Colombo when it moves out, depending on the wishes of the owner, Fried said. The lease expires at the end of 2021, but the company has a 30-year right of renewal.

The Colombo was recently put up for sale by its owner, Lilly Cooper.