For years, Bourke Street has been on life support, but Melbourne’s prime shopping strip has finally got its buzz back.

The opening of the three-storey “Mecca of all Meccas” this month saw shoppers lining up from before dawn to be first through the doors, with a dancing parade down Bourke Street.

Crowds queuing outside the new Mecca store earlier this month.Credit: Simon Schluter

More than 40,000 customers came through the doors of the cosmetic brand’s new flagship store over the opening weekend to sniff perfumes at the ‘Scentorium’, admire the details of the painstakingly restored heritage building and slather themselves in Sol de Janeiro samples.

Mecca’s opening will be followed later this month by the Rodd & Gunn store in the rear of the building and in September, the $150 million Melbourne Walk development is set to open next door, housing more shops and two IHG hotels: Hotel Indigo and a Holiday Inn.

While office vacancy rates in Melbourne are still high, the retail vacancy rate in central Melbourne was just 5.5 per cent last month.

The former Centrepoint Arcade on the other side of the Mecca store has seen better days, but it’s quite the turnaround for the once-beleaguered shopping strip.

The shopfronts are finally alight after sitting empty for years,........

© The Age