Shabby look for Hewletts Rd

Hewletts Rd, the main arterial route between Mount Maunganui and downtown Tauranga, should be a showpiece business area, but at present looks a little bedraggled.
The vacancy rate on the industrial-zoned properties is as high as it's ever been.
At least 25,500sq m, or 2.55ha, of prime land, involving 11 properties, is available for lease along the main stretch from Newton St to Totara St.
Many of the vacancies have been caused by car yards closing because of the industry slowdown, and many properties have been on the market for six to 12 months. That's the equivalent of $7.65 million worth of business land sitting idle and unproductive, as the local economy (ever so slowly) shakes off the effects of the recession.
"We have a problem ... the properties have been sitting around too long," said Simon Clark, the Tauranga director of Colliers International. Pressed further, he conceded that Hewletts Rd has become "a bit of an eyesore".
He said it was "the highest level of vacancy I've seen along there. If you look at the office/retail market [in the city] it's not in as bad state as Hewletts Rd.
"The question now is how can we attract businesses to the area. Nearly all the buildings there are leased and most of the [unused] properties are vacant yards.
"If there isn't a demand for that product, then it has to change.
"I would say that if we had more buildings on Hewletts Rd, then we would have more activity.
"Maybe the owners will be forced to develop their properties further, and the council could help out by allowing a broader use for the land."
Taking a trip down Hewletts Rd towards the Mount, the Caltex service station sitting on 4000sq m of land has closed down, its convenience store is boarded up and emblazoned with graffiti. Not a good look for a showpiece road in a modern city.
There is no longer any petrol stations on this side of the road that handles 30,000 vehicles a day. Caltex has nearly six years of the lease to run, but closed because of rent and profit margins, and the Waikato property owners will be in hurry to re-lease the site.
Further down, Ultimate Motor Group moved out of its second site, of 2500sq m, and relocated its used cars and grooming facility to the main premises on the corner with Totara St.
Next door, Ebbett Tauranga closed its 4000sq m used car yard, deciding it had enough space in Cameron Rd. The site still hasn't been leased after 12 months.
Hewletts Road Car Sales, which uses a large 4000sq m site, wants to downsize and will be relocating when its lease runs out at the end of November. But the "For Lease sign" is already up and so far there's been no takers.
Across the road, a smaller 600sq m car yard is vacant after it failed to sell; a caravan retailer gave up its second site of 2500sq m; and a 600sq m building on a 2500sq m section is unoccupied after Titan Cranes pulled out of Tauranga.
AMF Boat Company, at 125 Hewletts Rd, is also leaving and is looking to sub-lease the premises.
Further along, an 1800sq m site with a 600sq m building that housed outdoor furniture and caravans has been sitting idle for six months.
Two neighbouring sites, each 1800sq m in size, are vacant since Shack n Shed, now in liquidation, moved out. One of the sections has a smartened-up showroom awaiting a new tenant.
There is progress along Hewletts Rd. KFC Mt Maunganui on the corner with Newton St will re-open in May after a $1.8 million makeover.
At the other end of the road, the property formerly occupied by luxury car dealer Bay European, which closed in early 2009, has finally been leased.
IT company Gen-i Bay of Plenty will be using the premises for offices and a service centre, and its staff of 35 will be shifting from First Avenue within two months.
Close by, Ultimate Motor Group bought a chunk of the adjacent Satara site and is expanding its corner site by 1200sq m, including a new 300sq m building for grooming cars.
Ultimate managing director John Cross reckoned eight used car sales yards have closed in Hewletts Rd during the past five years. "Tauranga has about 4 per cent of national sales and so proportionately the city would lose 12 car dealers," he said.
"Sure, Hewletts Rd has taken the share of that but there are still eight dealers here and two down Totara St. It didn't help when Hewletts Rd became a state highway.
"We lost all our parking in front of the sites and the traffic is forced to carry on. There's yellow lines down the side and it's dangerous to slow down, you can be collected by a bus.
"The road has taken precedence over businesse," said Mr Cross.
"It's pretty valuable land but there's a motorway in the middle of a light industrial area. At the end of the day, it's dollars and cents and some of the owners are trying to achieve rentals they were enjoying three to five years ago.
"They have to be realistic with their pricing. The vacant properties are just a sales office, a shed, tarmac and fencing."
Mr Cross said Hewletts Rd was supposed to be the car mecca for Tauranga but there were now fewer used car dealers and "maybe the road needs to be developed some other way".
Andy Ralph, environmental policy manager for Tauranga City Council, is convinced industrial is the right zoning for Hewletts Rd.
Related activities, such as a showroom and retail outlet, for warehousing and manufacturing can also be permitted.
"I take a long-term view. We have oodles of land zoned for commercial in the city and we have to keep industrial land, especially where businesses have a direct relationship with the port which is developing.
"Car yards come and go, and the market is going through a correction because of the way the road has been re-designed.
"That's all right. It is a state highway and it's not meant to have the same free access, even though it has high visibility," Mr Ralph said.
"Maybe the price of land needs to be adjusted because of the traffic constraint.
"And it becomes affordable for industrial activity that doesn't need a profile. The [industrial] land itself is a resource and it normally takes two years to work through a market change" said Mr Ralph.