Second business evicted from Rundle St shop
Is this the city’s most cursed shop? A second food business has been turfed out in two years.
Twist & Top’s frozen yoghurt shop at 187C Rundle Street had its lease terminated on Monday, due to claims it owed more than $12,800 in unpaid rent.
It’s the second eviction notice the leasing company, OM Holdings, has issued in two years, after evicting popular CBD spot Dumplings R Us from the same location in 2024.
A notice dated August 24 claimed that Twist & Top’s parent company, Neh Foods Pty Ltd owes a total of $12,878 and terminated a lease that would have expired in 2032.
It opened in the beloved old Dumplings R Us spot in August 2025 and was active on social media until Friday, August 21.
Twist & Top was contacted for comment.
Other recent Rundle Street departures include pre-loved clothing shop Goodbyes and Thai restaurant Café Michael 2, which have closed this year.
You might like
But Rundle Street property mogul Steve Maras says vacancy rates are heading in the right direction and his own properties are fully occupied.
As of quarter 1, 2026, the street’s vacancy rate is 9.3 per cent, down from 10.3 per cent in quarter three of 2025, according to data from real estate research firm JLL.
Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith ruled out any concern for the shopping strip today, saying “Rundle Street is not suffering”.
“I think we’ve got to be honest about this. They have good tenancy levels, and there is always a turnover. We don’t want illegal vape shops; they have to go, and nobody wants those in our premier shopping street.
“I think that the property owners in that area are professional, they’re interventionist, and they do a good job and why would I suggest that someone who doesn’t pay rent should be retained in the premises?”
JLL’s SA strategic research director Rick Warner said “while vacancy along Rundle Street is currently higher than long-term averages, the strip remains a key destination for hospitality operators in the CBD”.
Subscribe for updates
“Over the next years, there’s going to be a huge influx of development around the street that will support daily pedestrian traffic,” Warner said.
He pointed to Wee Hur’s Y Suites student accommodation project at the Crown & Anchor, expected to have 700 beds; Journal’s student accommodation development at 275 North Terrace with 1000 beds, and the new 250-room Hilton Hotel on the east end of Pirie Street as examples of “a positive wave of future living sector density in the area”.
“Additionally, Renewal SA has two major projects that will also increase east-end density with the new 17,000 sqm DefenceHQ office tower at Lot Fourteen currently under construction, and the major City East Urban Renewal Project which has plans for 700 new apartments and a hotel,” he said.
“This growing population density in and around Rundle Street will increase daily spending along the strip and build on the already strong vibrancy in the area.”
Since the JLL data’s release, more Rundle Street businesses have opened, including one of Australia’s most lucrative influencer success stories, Fayt the Label, and two new restaurants, French Le Mistral and Filipino restaurant Mutya’s.
Maras Group Managing Director and CEO Steve Maras does not see the current vacancy rate “as problematic”.
“I see it as just a bit of change, which I think is good because you do need that. If it’s the same operators and same traders constantly, the streets, doesn’t matter where they are, they lose a bit of their appeal,” Maras said.
Maras Group owns swathes of property in the city’s east end, including Rundle Street East, Ebenezer Place and Vardon Ave.
Maras said their tenancies are curated, with hospitality like Eros Kafe, Paper Tiger, retail like Assembly Label and Hommey, and clear shopping and dining identities in each part of the street.
“We in our portfolio currently don’t have an unoccupied shop. We always make sure that we’re looking a way ahead to make sure that we’ve got occupiers coming in,” Maras said.
Ebenezer Place, which includes Umai Kitchen on the corner of Union Street, Midwest Trader, Shop Pond and OVO Gelato, is “our eclectic, very much local trader-focused strip”, Maras said.
“This is very different to what it was 10 years ago,” Maras said.
“Vardon Avenue and Ebenezer Place are so popular, which I never would have thought it would have got to that, that Rundle Street, to some degree, even though they are different uses, does compete with the back streets now.”
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
