250px, Jam Factory, Chapel Street The Jam Factory is a shopping and entertainment centre, located in

Chapel Street Chapel Street is a street in Melbourne, Victoria, running along the inner suburbs of South Yarra, Prahran, Windsor, St Kilda and St Kilda East. Route Chapel Street is essentially straight and runs for over 4.14 kilometres along an approxim ...

South Yarra South Yarra is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cities of City of Melbourne, Melbourne and City of Sto ...

, a suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia. The Jam Factory is owned by Newmark Capital Limited. It is also the headquarters of Village Roadshow.

History

The Jam Factory was originally established as the ''Victorian Brewery'' in 1858, having a value of 150 pounds. The brewery shut down in 1876, with the building and land then being purchased the same year by Robert Wright and Robert Payne, who started the ''Victoria Preserving Company''. By 1880, it was named the ''Red Cross preserving company''. During the fruit season it employed 230 people, and was the largest employer in

Prahran Prahran (), also pronounced colloquially as Pran, is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Stonnington local government area. Prahran recorded a po ...

. Mr William Peacock bought the premises and turned it into the 'OK' Jam Co in 1895 and resold it to Henry Jones of the Henry Jones IXL Pty Ltd company and the

Henry Jones IXL Henry Jones IXL was a company primarily known as a manufacturer of jams, conserves and sauces in Australia. The brand was owned and its products manufactured by SPC Ardmona from 2004, which was itself owned by Coca-Cola Amatil from February 20 ...

household brand name. Jam production continued in the building for this firm until 1970. At a cost of $20 million the site was redeveloped and opened on 9 October 1979 as a shopping centre catering to modern fashions, and in 1995 was redeveloped as the Jam Factory. The shopping centre also housed the first Australian

Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

shop opening in 1998. It has since closed, along with the rest of the bankrupt chain, in 2011, when its regional parent company, RedGroup Retail, went into administration. The Borders space is now occupied by Topshop. The Jam Factory was also chosen by Brazin Limited to be the first site to reintroduce

Virgin Megastores Virgin Megastores is an international entertainment retailing chain, founded in early 1976 by Richard Branson as a record shop on London's Oxford Street. In 1979 the company opened their first Megastore at the end of Oxford Street and Tottenha ...

in Australia opening in 2002. It has since been closed by Sanity Entertainment (formally Brazin) in 2010 with the Virgin space now occupied by the country's first Urban by Target store. Before these major tenants closed their Jam Factory outlets, its owner, Challenger, announced in June 2008 a $700 million redevelopment that did not proceed. It would have seen the historic factory building demolished and replaced with a new style shopping centre (54,000 square metres of shops, more than double the present size), apartment towers built on the car park closest to Virgin Megastore/Urban by Target, 8000 square metres of office space, and a 100-room hotel. Challenger then attempted to sell the entire site in May 2009 for about $110 million without success.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jam Factory Shopping centres in Melbourne Manufacturing plants in Melbourne Heritage-listed buildings in Melbourne Shopping malls established in 1979 Buildings and structures in the City of Stonnington 1979 establishments in Australia