Tauranga City Council has been invited to underwrite or lease two floors of carparks in a proposed hotel development on the corner of Spring St and Durham St in the downtown.
The owner of Ray White Commercial in the downtown, Philip Hunt, put the case to the inaugural meeting of the council's transport committee today.
Mr Hunt said the answer to revitalising the CBD was to fill up the first floor office spaces above the shops.
And although he was "on a roll" with the number of leasing inquiries from businesses wanting to relocate to the CBD, the problem was a shortage of carparks.
"The situation is desperate."
Mr Hunt cited the case of Apata Packhouse and Coolstores' head office in 1st Ave. It wanted to bring more staff into town but because the staff were mobile and not sitting at a desk all day, they needed carparks.
He said a lot of consultants with offices in converted houses on Cameron Rd and the avenues were wanting to relocate.
Mr Hunt said negotiations were well advanced with a developer wanting to redevelop 69 Spring St, the 59-year-old former Tauranga Electric Power Board building. He urged the council to consider underwriting or leasing two of the four storeys of carparks holding 400 cars, with the other two floors providing the parks for a possible 70-room hotel development.
A council commitment to underwrite the two floors of carparks meant the developer could commence the project sooner rather than wait six months or a year to get the numbers to make it fly, he said.
The committee did not make a decision on the request.