MECCA Flagship

When it comes to retail experiences, the new MECCA flagship – now the largest beauty retail space in the Southern Hemisphere – doesn’t just set a new standard, it brings to life a visionary new concept.

 Involved early, we are proud to have been part of delivering the high-end fit-out for MECCA in the 140-year-old heritage building, set within the historic Cole’s Book Arcade.

Housed across three floors, the space has been reimagined as a destination where brands, products, services and experiences come together across 4,000sqm. With retail, workplace, hospitality, medical, heritage and education fit-outs in one space, this project spans 8 of the 12 sectors Buildcorp works across. Offering a skin clinic, hair salon, nail bar, a piercing studio, an apothecary, a florist, a café, a naturopath and the Mecca-versity, the flagship redefines what it means to shop for beauty.

As a heritage site on two of Melbourne’s busiest retail streets, the project required our team to manage complex logistics, coordinate artisanal trades and the delicate and considered management of a heritage protection and restoration, including cornices and capitals, and 1350sqm of existing terrazzo on the Ground Floor. In addition, we intricately engineered structural steel designed around the heritage foundations, to enable the construction of the Mecca-versity space. From the integration of high-end joinery and lighting, to the over 50 different types of tiles that were procured from all over the world and installed, as well as Patricia Piccinini’s, Sensuous Gyre, 2023 in which a large scaffold was built to install the rotating mechanism into the heritage ceiling that supports the artwork, this was truly a unique project.

Delivered over 17 months, the program included tight coordination around the base builder’s main works and alongside another fit-out contractor working in the building; careful logistical and materials handling solutions; and ensuring the presentable public interface was always maintained across the frontages on Melbourne’s bustling Bourke Street Mall and Little Collins Street.

And in a final testament to successful collaboration and great partnerships, we were able to handover early to ensure MECCA had time to get product in place and prepare for their opening event.