Thousands visit new CBD container village Our Place for opening day

Rachelle Duffy (left) and Kate Barnes at the opening of Our Place on Willow St. Photo / Andrew Warner

Organisers estimate more than 2000 people visited new CBD retail and eatery destination Our Place for its official opening day.

The ribbon was cut to open the Willow St container village on the site of the demolished civic administration building on Saturday morning.

Rachelle Duffy of Little Big Events, which organised the village, said the opening day numbers were "a great result".

There was a great vibe on the day and she'd had lots of positive feedback - and zero complaints about parking.

"So many people have said 'this is just what the Tauranga CBD needed'."

"We asked people would you normally come into the CBD on a Saturday and so many of them said 'no'. That to us is really what we wanted to achieve."

Duffy said the next few weeks would be about businesses settling in and testing whether the regular opening hours of 10am to 11pm were working.

While the eateries hoped to open all day, and for dinner, the retailers would probably close at 5pm and some businesses could close on Mondays.

She said there was no plan to try and become a nightlife hotspot but eateries would offer the full range of meals including dinner.

There were also plans to put the workshop spaces to work for activities such as yoga classes.

"We need to work out what works for the public."