Le Louvre to Leave Collins Street For South Yarra

MELBOURNE establishment frock shop Le Louvre will leave its long time home at 74 Collins Street, and relocate to South Yarra.

Boutique owner Georgina Weir has sold the prominent 3-level 1855 building to Queensland Investment Corporation, which owns the 50-plus level Nauru House office building behind Le Louvre.

Le Louvre stood in the way of a $500 million mixed use village of high rise offices, and a shopping arcade proposed by QIC for the Nauru House forecourt last year.

Ms Weir is reported to have unsuccessfully tried to obtain a permit to devlop a 12-level apartment building on top of the shop about five years ago. The building was given to her by her mother Lilian Wightman, who opened the ultra ritzy boutique more than 80 years ago.

After years refusing to sell, QIC confirmed it purchased the property from Ms Weir "recently".

It's speculated the shop would be worth about $10 million to $12 million in the current market.

Sources say Le Louvre will relocate to a red brick former substation at 2 Daly Street in South Yarra, but this could not be confirmed with Ms Weir who was unavailable for comment.

That building, owned by the government and until recently dwarfed by factories and warehouses, is now at the centre of $1 billion redevelopment boom within the area of South Yarra known as Forest Hill.

Le Louvre is expected to open in South Yarra before the end of the year.

Also moving to South Yarra is South Melbourne-based restaurateur Salvatore Malatesta, who has leased a 44 square metre space at Michael Yates Yarra Lane development.

Mr Malatesta will open Sensory Lab, a “coffee cellar door” type cafe, within a 44 square metre ground floor space of a larger building.
 
The owner of South Melbourne’s famous St Ali cafe expects to open in South Yarra in July, joining gadget store Apple, which will open a 44 square metre shop at the same time.