In volume 5 of our Melbourne Retail Insights mini-series, we investigated the food and beverage tenancy mix in Melbourne’s CBD retail core.
Cafes, restaurants, take-away food and specialised food retailers account for 341 retail outlets, making up almost 30% of all outlets. If we consider the floor space, this equals to 25% or nearly 39,000 sqm across the area surveyed.
Over 50% of these outlets (168 in total) are cafes and restaurants, alongside 16 pubs, taverns and bars, just over 100 are take-away food outlets and just over 50 are specialised food retailers, such as chocolatiers, tea shops, grocers, fruit and vegetable and liquor retailers and convenience stores. Of the 168 or so restaurants and cafes, the majority (127) are dedicated restaurants and the balance (41) are dedicated cafes.
Interestingly, the discussion of the strength and dominance of food and beverage offerings in the CBD is supported by the numbers. In 2010, there were 268 food and beverage operators in the CBD core against 341 in our most recent survey in March 2020, representing a 27% increase over the decade.
Contributing to this increase is a growing CBD worker population, which is estimated to have grown from 290,000 to 350,000 in the same period. On top of this, an increase in the number of tourists, CBD residents and student numbers has also contributed to a vibrant and growing food and beverage industry in the CBD.
