Newmarket gaps blamed on low sales, high rents

The Broadway shop occupied by Starbucks is empty. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The Starbucks coffee chain has shifted out of the Broadway, Newmarket, site it has occupied for about six years - leaving another empty space on the premier shopping strip.

Some businesses say sales are not enough to support the high rents charged in the area.

And Russell Sinclair, of the Retailers Association, says limited carparking in Newmarket could be prompting shoppers to go to suburban malls such as Sylvia Park.

A spokeswoman for Restaurant Brands, the company that operates Starbucks in New Zealand, said the coffee shop, on the corner of Teed St, was vacated because it was not profitable.

It was not part of a wider strategy to close more Starbucks stores, she said.

The coffee chain, which still operates a store in Newmarket's Westfield 277 shopping centre, is not the only company to have departed Broadway this year.

About 30m up on the same side of the street from the coffee chain's former site, women's fashion retailer Kimberleys has closed its store and the space remains empty.

Kimberleys general manager Stacey Mortimer said the store had shifted to a Ponsonby Rd site because Newmarket's foot traffic and sales had not been high enough to justify the expensive rent.

"I can't tell you what rent we were paying, but I can tell you that it's about 30 per cent cheaper where we went to," she said.

Across the road, shoe retailer Eurobrands is advertising a closing-down sale, and a staff member, who declined to be named, said the closure was because the new landlord planned to increase the rent.

In the Rialto precinct, the large site vacated by teen fashion retailer Supre last year remained empty yesterday.

But Kim Bennett, of property owner Ladstone Developments, said a "multinational" retailer had signed a long-term lease on the site.

Mr Sinclair said the "flow-on effect" of the global financial crisis was still putting the brakes on retail spending.

But Newmarket Business Association general manager Ashley Church said shoppers had been "cautiously spending more" this year, and there were far fewer vacant sites on Broadway than this time last year.

"We're certainly not seeing a boom in spending, but we're definitely seeing an increase in sales," he said.

Retail spending rose at its fastest rate in four years in the March quarter, Statistics New Zealand figures released last month show.

Mr Church said new tenants would soon be occupying the former Starbucks and Kimberleys sites.

The situation is more grim in station square, the retail area between Broadway and the Newmarket train station.

When the Herald visited yesterday, more than half the 26 retail sites inside the square were vacant.

A further five spaces that line the entrance leading from Remuera Rd into the square were also unoccupied.

Cameron Brewer, an Auckland councillor and former boss of the Newmarket Business Association, said the council was planning to widen access from Broadway into the square, with the aim of increasing the number of shoppers venturing into thearea.

"The ugliness and narrowness and low profile of the Broadway entrance into station square has arguably slowed down [its] development," he said.

Mr Church said that station square was "not wonderful", but plans in addition to the widening of the Broadway entrance were being made to improve the area.

GONE
* Starbucks (Broadway site. Shop in Newmarket's Westfield 277 shopping centre still operating).
* Kimberleys.
* Supre.
* Gas (owned by All Black Dan Carter).
* Cue (Broadway site. Shop in Newmarket's Westfield 277 shopping centre still operating).