Melbourne’s Mecca superstore is already getting a makeover
Building hoardings have been erected across Melbourne’s Mecca superstore as it undergoes a facelift of its facade just six months after its grand opening last year drew crowds of excited cosmetics shoppers.
The three-storey, 4000-square-metre store in the heart of the city’s Bourke Street Mall is three times the size of the company’s flagship in Sydney. The building is also home to menswear retailer Rodd & Gunn and Clemenger.
The most ambitious project yet by Mecca’s billionaire founder Jo Horgan, the superstore opened to much fanfare in August following a two-year delay and protracted approvals by the state’s heritage authority.
Most of the store’s distinctive red facade is now obscured and will remain so for months as it undergoes an upgrade with tiles imported from Britain.
“When we first opened the Bourke Street store, it had a temporary front facade as we waited for the final terracotta blocks to arrive from the UK,” a Mecca spokesperson said.
“This work has now commenced and will be completed in three stages over the next couple of months.”
A planning permit for a gantry, or an overhead structure for lifting heavy loads, started on January 8 and is set to expire on March 31. The hoardings and associated signs are expected to be removed no later than April 12.
It is the latest drama, or hiccup, for Mecca and its rise to retail success. Last year the corporate regulator said it was investigating entities linked to Mecca and the secretive way in which its accounts had been provided.
In Bourke Street, the cosmetics retailer occupies a historic building that had been home for many years to a David Jones department.
Property investor Newmark Capital purchased the building in 2020 for $121 million from South Africa’s Woolworths on a significant discount of about 20 per cent to initial price expectations for the property.
The property group, co-founded by former Hawthorn Football Club star Chris Langford and business partner Simon Morris, raised $90 million for an investment fund to acquire the building before embarking on a lengthy and complex restoration.
Newmark subsequently sought to raise further money to fund the renovation, The Australian Financial Review reported last year, as construction continued amid a post-pandemic surge in building costs.
Newmark’s Langford told The Sydney Morning Herald last year that there were challenges during its renovation such as a labour and supply shortage. The redevelopment cost in the order of $100 million, he said.
“You’ve got the Metro train projects under way, and they’re using escalator contractors, they’re building steel work, they’re doing electrical finishes in their concourses and their platforms,” he said in November.
Amid the excitement of the superstore’s much-anticipated opening last year, Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece described it as “the biggest retail opening since Myer opened on Bourke Street 100 years ago”.
Around 600,000 people had visited the Bourke Street outlet by the end of last year, with the megastore attracting about 70,000 customers a week.
Mecca’s founder Jo Horgan opened her first Mecca store in South Yarra in 1997 and her husband, Peter Wetenhall, is co-chief executive.
The cosmetics conglomerate recorded revenue of more than $1.4 billion in the 2024 financial year, and subsequently paid out a $110 million dividend. At the time, however, Mecca said the $110 million was not a dividend but had been funnelled into a special purpose entity to help with growth projects such as the Bourke Street megastore.
