Australian luxury skincare brand Aesop is set to open a new flagship store in Melbourne’s CBD in the George’s Building.

The new store will occupy the former Dolce Firme space covering 79.3sqm of retail area neighbouring Christian Louboutin at the Paris end of Collins Street. 

Jennifer Tai, Colliers’ CBD retail leasing manager, Adam Lester, Colliers’ Victorian director of retail leasing negotiated the off-market deal.

Tai said there has been growing interest in prime retail locations in the past year since retailers have resumed looking to expand their footprints.

“Well-established national and international operators still want to cement a presence in the Melbourne CBD and, in most cases, are expanding their floor areas to accommodate for new experience-based concepts to draw customers in and offer a wider range of products in-store,” she said. 

Lester added that existing operators are using current market opportunities to grow their presence in the CBD which he believes is an ‘opportunity’ that did not exist previously.

“They’re using this time to establish themselves for the return of customer traffic and we are seeing a wide introduction of exciting new formats that will change the way people experience Melbourne’s best retail.”