Myer

Retailers around Australia are stepping up store re-openings as major shopping centre landlords prepare to resume full trade despite simmering tensions over rental payments during the crisis threatening to boil over.

Competitive e-sports spaces, VR experiences and a quick commute to a co-working space could become part of your shopping experience as malls look to fill the gap created by department store downsizing.

Major retail landlords are coming under pressure from the sluggish performance of anchor tenants, which are dragging on overall complexes even as some areas hold up.

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Myer boss John King has had a win with his landlord that could fill the rest of the retail sector with enough confidence to play hardball over rental agreements.

Under-pressure department store Myer could seek to hand back space at 15 shopping centres over the next four years, according an analysis by investment bank UBS.

Myer is looking to either halve its office space at its 800 Collins St headquarters or move out — as the company looks to make savings.

From a devastating fire more than a decade ago to a flood in 2016, Hobart Myer has been through it all.

Manulife Real Estate, the global real estate arm of Canada’s biggest insurer, Manulife Financial, has bought Myer’s headquarters at Victoria Harbour in the Docklands for close to $300 million.