Adidas is opening its first stand-alone Christchurch CBD store, choosing the city’s retail precinct in a move that underlines the strength of the central city retail market.
The global sportswear brand has signed a long-term lease for 161 Cashel Street – a large-footprint 370sq m tenancy in the Grand Central Building near the corner of High Street.
Its new store will open mid-2026.
Annabelle Bramwell of Colliers Christchurch matched Adidas to the space without it ever reaching the open market.
Start your property search
She had been working with the international brand to find a prominent location for some time, knowing it had previously missed out on another CBD site she was also marketing.
“Adidas had been looking for the right space for a flagship store for a few years, waiting for the time and the location to be right,” Bramwell says.
The signing is a significant vote of confidence in the Christchurch CBD.
Adidas previously had a presence in Westfield Riccarton and has an outlet store in Dress Smart in Hornby, but has opted for a flagship position in the Christchurch CBD.
It is placed alongside a cluster of international active and lifestyle brands including Lululemon, JD Sports, LSKD, and Sweaty Betty – an organically formed precinct that has quietly become one of the city’s most active retail corridors.
Across from H&M and adjacent to Hallensteins and Lululemon, the Adidas store will also benefit from extra foot traffic from the recent opening of Chemist Warehouse just along High Street in November that was also leased by Colliers. Other new signings in the city include Kookai and Lorna Jane.
“The fact that a brand of this calibre has committed to a large format store here says something about the trajectory of the Christchurch economy,” Bramwell says.
Complementing the Adidas news, outdoor apparel brand The North Face is expanding their footprint and relocating to a larger 242sq m tenancy at 282 High Street.
It’s a newly completed building developed by the Peebles Group in the pedestrian mall on the high-profile corner of High and Hereford Streets.
This tenancy was also handled by Bramwell and Nick Doig of Colliers Christchurch.
The recent signings have brought street-fronting vacancy on the High Street and Cashel Street pedestrian malls to zero, a milestone Bramwell describes as the strongest position the city’s retail core has seen in post-earthquake Christchurch.
Upward pressure on rents has followed the scarcity, though she says international brands are committing because they believe the market can support them.
The economic backdrop supports that confidence. According to ChristchurchNZ’s February 2026 Monthly Insights Brief, Canterbury’s business growth is running at nearly double the national rate, with the number of business locations operating in the region rising 3.1 per cent over 2025 – the fastest of any region in New Zealand.
Canterbury accounted for 24 per cent of all new business locations nationally during 2025.
International visitor arrivals at Christchurch Airport were 21 per cent higher in the three months to November 2025 than in the same period a year earlier – more than double the national growth rate of 9 per cent – while commercial accommodation occupancy hit 71 per cent, well above the national average of 53 per cent.
Music festival Electric Avenue has just attracted 45,000 to the central city, while the One NZ Stadium soon opens in the CBD to host huge sports and entertainment events.
ChristchurchNZ economist Charlotte Lascelles notes that while local consumer spending remains cautious, international tourism continues to contribute positively to the regional economy and that the balance of indicators appears to be positive for 2026.
Bramwell says the contrast with other main centres is stark.
While Auckland and Wellington CBDs have faced retail headwinds, the Christchurch pedestrian malls have attracted a succession of international brands over the past 18 months.
“This is the strongest the retail core has ever been,” she says.
“There’s genuine demand, there’s limited vacancy and the brands coming in are making long-term commitments. That’s not something you see everywhere right now.”
- Supplied by Colliers
