The Importer store in Grey St is relocating. Photo / Sandra Conchie
The Importer store in Grey St is relocating. Photo / Sandra Conchie
A CBD building is set to be knocked down to create a proposed laneway between Grey and Durham Sts.
Furniture and homewares store The Importer, formerly at 79 Grey St, has moved to Mount Maunganui and Tauranga City Council intends to demolish the building to improve pedestrian and cycle connections and accessibility within the city centre’s retail precinct.
The Importer is consolidating its business to its Tawa St store. Its owner has been approached for comment.
Commission chairwoman Anne Tolley told the Bay of Plenty Times the council has an agreement to buy 79 Grey St.
Building the laneway was a “priority action” for the Knowledge and Retail Precincts, as defined in the City Centre Action and Investment Plan, Tolley said.
“The laneway will support pedestrian connections between the retail precinct of Grey St, the University of Waikato and the future public transport spine. Apart from providing better connections between these key city centre assets, it’s also intended that in the short-term, this area would serve as a pop-up green space or carpark.”
“We’re in the early stages of planning for this site, and we’ll share more details with the community once settlement is complete.”
Neighbouring Paw and Partners canine innovative fashion store owner Scott Brownsaid he was disappointed to see any business move from the city centre.
“The problem is as retailers leave and are not replaced it creates a spiral-down effect and the perception is that the CBD is an old, dead part of town, which has been neglected too long.”
He said in the face of that perception people were more likely to shop at “brand spanking new” stores that offered more eclectic choices, such as Pāpāmoa, Mount Maunganui and The Lakes shopping centres.
Paw and Partners canine fashion store owner Scott Brown says Tauranga needs to make more of its harbour. Photo / Sandra Conchie
Brown said he moved to Tauranga from Auckland for a better lifestyle and opened the business about a year ago after negotiating a good lease.
“I think the biggest thing we need to do is to utilise our most fantastic asset in the CBD, which is really obvious - it’s the waterfront - and we should be pushing ahead with building more high-value apartments and terraced housing with views of the harbour.
“That would help bring lots more people into the city centre and will certainly revive the CBD, as it will also attract more retailers, good cafes and restaurants/bars, performance artists and more events. Any city which has a harbour, it’s gold.”
Indelible Giftware store owner Heather Chander said despite some of these challenges she remained “100 per cent confident” in the Tauranga CBD’s survival and had no plans to go elsewhere.
Chander said she had worked in the retail sector in downtown Tauranga for 36 years, including owning House of Heather on First Ave for 20 years.
“If anybody asked me what the hardest thing to deal with as a business owner right now, it’s the negative talk all day about what’s wrong with the CBD rather than people focusing on the positive things happening to transform our city centre.’'
Chander said she was confident the planned new civic centre precinct would help revitalise the CBD.
Fancy That owner Bill Campbell says parking continues to be an issue. Photo / Mead Norton
Fancy That souvenir shop co-owner Bill Campbell believed paid parking continued to be a major issue for retailers and shoppers.
“We need thousands more people, especially foot traffic, to return here to be able to survive and sufficient parking is a must.”
Tauranga City Council on Monday approved widening the scope of a $500,000 per annum three-year fund to better respond to concerns raised by CBD businesses, including parking restrictions.
Commission chairwoman Anne Tolley asks that people be patient during the development phase of the CBD.
Tolley said ‘‘good things” were starting to happen in downtown Tauranga, including the “fabulous” new Farmers building which was being well-patronised, and lots of construction going on around the city.
The decision to move the Tauranga library and service centre to Devonport Rd had also helped bring more people into the city centre, she said.
“There are challenges which cannot be resolved overnight. However, [the] commission has done a lot in the past two years to help attract more people into CBD and that has resulted in higher foot traffic. But we cannot do it alone and we all need to work together to support the city centre through this transformation phase.
