Devonport Road and Tauranga CBD, which is recording good growth at the moment according to a new study. Photo/file
Devonport Road and Tauranga CBD, which is recording good growth at the moment according to a new study. Photo/file
Tauranga's central business district is undergoing a revival, with particularly good growth in more skilled businesses, according to new data in an infometrics report commissioned by Priority One.
Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless said the report was encouraging for those pushing to get the CBD up and running.
Priority One chiefexecutive Nigel Tutt said the city centre was "a real standout" last year. The CBD had gone into decline during the global financial crisis, as did many urban centres in New Zealand and around the world, he said.
"But across all indicators, there has been strong growth in the CBD area. This included strong growth in GDP, business units and new jobs."
Central city GDP in the year to March 2016 was up 4.2 per cent from a year earlier, compared to national GDP growth of 2.5 per cent over the same period. A total of 2298 business units were recorded in 2016, up 5.5 per cent from a year earlier, and higher than the New Zealand average increase of 1.6 per cent over the same period.
Among broad industry categories, professional, scientific and technical services was the largest sector based in Tauranga's city centre, making up 16.9 per cent of businesses. The second biggest was rental, hiring and real estate services (15.2 per cent), followed by healthcare and social assistance (10 per cent).
"It is particularly heartening to see a large number of quaternary businesses based in the city centre - those that have a good proportion of staff with degrees, in management positions or working in professional or technical occupations," said Mr Tutt.
"At 46 per cent, this is considerably higher than the New Zealand average of 32 per cent."
The Tauranga City Council had been placing a lot of emphasis on the city centre, he said.
"What I interpret from this report is that you're now starting to see the benefit of this. And I'd expect that to continue over time, with the Waikato University campus coming into the city centre and more businesses, which will all add to the momentum."
Mainstreet Tauranga spokesperson Sally Cooke said the report supported the increase in confidence the organisation had been seeing across the city centre.
"It's particularly encouraging to see the Tauranga CBD GDP is up," she said.
Confidence: Employers are taking on more staff, and more businesses are moving into the central city says Sally Cooke of Mainstreet Tauranga. Photo/file
"It's also good to see employment growth up 4.1 per cent, well above the national average. This is indicative of the increasing business confidence as employers take on more staff and, most importantly, more businesses are choosing to move into the city centre. This all contributes to an increase in people working, living and enjoying our city centre amenities and offerings."
Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stan Gregec said things were starting to look brighter for the Tauranga CBD.
"It's a combination of new things happening and new businesses opening up, as well as some greats events coming up and more tourists passing through," he said. "Retail is not doing too badly at the moment, and the new waterfront steps will be a major drawcard once they are completed."
Mr Gregec said the council seemed to be getting its act together with a planned spruce-up of the CBD streetscape and a more positive attitude of working with private developers to get things happening.
"I think the communication of the bigger picture opportunity with the CBD is also improving."
However, he added, parking and public transport remained the big bugbears.
Tauranga CBD Growth factors
-Biggest contributor: Rental, hiring and real estate services grew by 6.4 per cent in 2016 and contributed 0.95 percentage points to the district's total growth of 4.2 per cent.
