The Myer Centre, Brisbane

The Myer Centre, Brisbane, corner of Albert and Elizabeth Streets

The Myer Centre is located between the Queen Street Mall and Elizabeth Street in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a nine-floor shopping complex which includes Queensland's largest Myer department store, and is open to the public seven days a week. The Myer Centre has the added benefit of being the hub for the Brisbane CBD. Most buses originate and end near or under the Myer Centre. The Myer Centre Car Park is also one of the largest car parks in the heart of the city with easy access to everything in the city.

Stores

The Myer Centre is home to approximately 180 stores ^[1] including:

Queenland's largest Myer department store Coles Supermarket Target Best and Less Lincraft Daiso ABC Shop Mind Games (a chess, board game, jigsaw and puzzle store) Australian Geographic shop Lowes Menswear Newsagencies

7-Eleven LeonBrant Hairdressing Terry White Chemists Food court (including Starbucks and Oporto (restaurant)) Shanghai Noodle House Book shops, computer shops Electrical goods stores Razor shop R.M. Williams Souvenir shops Event Cinemas Oxfam Shop

Layout

Escalators in the central area of The Myer Centre

Due to the hilly landscape of the Brisbane CBD, The Myer Centre's floors are labelled differently to most shopping centres. Whereas many shopping centres label their floors purely by number (level 1, level 2, etc.) or its vertical position (lower level, upper level, etc.), The Myer Centre is laid out in the following fashion (lowest level to highest):

• Level S (named after the former Sizzler restaurant): now a small parking area
• Level T (Lower Target level, one lift only): Target
• Level A (Albert Street entrance): Queen Street bus station, Target, food court
• Level E (Elizabeth Street entrance): Coles Central, food court, specialty stores
• Level Q (Queen Street entrance): Myer (Beauty Floor), specialty stores
• Level 1 (first floor above any street level): Myer (Women's Floor), Lincraft, specialty stores
• Level 2 (second floor above street levels): Myer (Men's Floor), Lincraft, Best and Less, Medicare, Oxfam Shop, ABC Shop, Skinnys
• Level 3 (third floor above street levels): Myer (Homewares and Children's Floor) (accessed from within store only), Event Cinemas
• Level 4 (fourth floor above street levels): Myer (Home Entertainment Floor) (accessed from within store only)
• Level R (two lifts only): Centre Management

History

The Myer Centre shopping complex opened in April 1988 (just in time for Brisbane's World Expo '88) and Myer relocated its Brisbane department store into it.

Previously, the original Brisbane Myer store extended from Queen Street to Adelaide Street, with entrances at both ends. That old location was on the opposite side of Queen Street to its current location in The Myer Centre. The old store was split in half by Burnett Lane and the arcade through today's Queen Adelaide Building used to be the main thoroughfare through the old Myer store. Myer purchased that original location from the Allan and Stark department store. The Allan and Stark Building are heritage listed. Originally, one of the entrances opened onto the busy Queen Street, before it was pedestrianised to become the Queen Street Mall in 1982.

In November 1998 the Myer Centre was purchased by Gandel Retail Trust for $371 million, making it the second largest property transaction in Australia's history at that time.^[2]

The construction project by REMM Group Ltd went for 18 months, and required excavation of 375,000 cubic metres of earth, to a depth of 22 metres (eight metres below the Brisbane River level), which was the largest urban excavation in Australia at that time.^[2]

Previously located on the site was four historic buildings of the Hotel Carlton (1885), New York Hotel (1860), Newspaper House, from which the Brisbane Telegraph was first published, and the Barry and Roberts department store. Using facadism, the facades of those buildings have been retained and restored.^[2]

The area where the cinemas now are was originally used as a fun park called 'Tops'. It was closed down and demolished in 2000, with the fun park parts sold off. The fun park comprised various small shops, an amusement centre, a swing ship, a dragon train, and a Ferris wheel. When the theme park was operating, screams of excitement and terror could be heard from the patrons of both the swing ship and the dragon train. Prior to 2000, the cinemas were originally situated in the area now occupied by Target on one level only, and operated by Hoyts.

In the past, the centre's tenants included fairly substantial nightclubs. In the early 1990s, the basement area (subsequently occupied by Sizzler) hosted "The Funkyard", a nightspot with an emphasis on the "alternative" guitar rock of the era. The Funkyard hosted live gigs; for example, the U.S. band Dark Carnival played there, with Ron Asheton of the Stooges on guitar. Another former tenant of the centre which played host to live music was the "Metropolis" nightclub, adjacent to the bus tunnel on Level "A", near the place now occupied by glamour photography shop "Starshots". Irish "shoegaze" band My Bloody Valentine played at Metropolis in 1991, supported by Straitjacket Fits (from New Zealand) and the Underground Lovers.

The centre is now valued at A$732 million.^[3]

On 8 March 2013, the mall was the scene of a siege.

Transport

Car

There are four levels of paid car parking available in the basement of the complex.

Bus

Queen Street Bus Station on the Albert Street level of the complex.

Train

The Myer Centre is also within easy walking distance of three train stations:

• Central Station
• South Brisbane Station
• Roma Street Station.

References

1. The Myer Shopping Centre — official website
3. The Australian

Coordinates: 27°28′12″S 153°01′30.75″E / 27.47000°S 153.0252083°E