More than 90 empty shops in Rotorua CBD

The number of vacant storefronts in Rotorua's central city has increased to 64, with new retail spaces within the Royal Court Apartments complex bringing vacancies to 91.
A Daily Post survey of the 10 blocks encompassed by Fenton, Arawa, Amohia and Amohau streets turned up 64 empty street-front premises. This included eight Royal Court stores on Hinemoa and Pukuatua streets, but there are also another 27 stores inside the complex.
On-street vacancies were up from 52 in December last year, although that data did not include shops in the new development, which were hidden by hoardings during the construction project.
LJ Hooker's Annalise Baird told The Daily Post interest in  the apartments and retail units had been disappointing and the concept might have been "a bit advanced for our time". To her knowledge, none of the retail units had been leased.
Hinemoa St continues to be the hardest-hit area, with 20 vacancies, not counting the internal Royal Court sites. However, the rapid increase in empty properties when the Post Shop moved from Hinemoa St to Pukuatua St in February 2010 appears to have slowed.
Rotorua Chamber of Commerce chief executive Roger Gordon said, including all shops in the Royal Court building, the CBD vacancy rate was the highest it had ever been. He said the new complex might attract new businesses to the area, but he feared a migration of existing businesses was more likely.
"People will move into new, better-quality properties and vacancies will shift to older and less attractive retail spaces that will be harder to attract tenants for."
Gordon hoped new city centre development incentives would help rectify the situation, saying a lot of things were coming together that would create future opportunities.
Rotorua District Council economic and regulatory services general manager Mark Rawson said Rotorua's situation was indicative of the national situation and it was doing better than many centres.
"There has been a gradual trend for downtown shopping precincts to contract, with more focus on main street retail strips and stand-alone mall locations."
"In Rotorua, at least we enjoy the advantage of our main street shopping and mall areas being closely co-located."
While  a sudden, short-term improvement was unlikely, Rawson assured The Daily Post the council was looking to stimulate business activity in the city centre.
"The recent Rotorua Night Market and Eat Streat initiatives are examples where, in partnership with retailers, we have been successful in attracting people to the CBD retail areas."
Initiatives from the Rotorua Urban Design Framework - including an incentives package to encourage new commercial developments and upgrading of retail premises - would also help revitalise the centre, creating a focus on Tutanekai St at the retail spine of the city.
That could involve a change in the use of some existing building, with conversion to residential space, visitor accommodation or other commercial activities.
"The council's incentive package allows Rotorua District Council to pay the cost of most development contributions for qualifying projects and this will provide significant savings on a development's overall costs," he said.
WORD FROM THE STREETS 

Attracting new businesses is key

NAI Harcourts commercial agent Paul Sanford said clients from outside Rotorua did comment on the number of vacancies and reducing the empty storefronts would help attract much-needed new business. The best thing  was not to move people around, but get new businesses into the city. "We are never going to fill the spaces unless we do that."
But there is still interest in Rotorua and Harcourts Commercial has just put leases together for three new businesses to enter the CBD, one of which was aimed specifically to get the tenant operating for the Rugby World Cup. Sanford said the expected increase in retail business during the event, leading into the summer tourist season, would give the business a strong kick start.
Bright future but factors beyond control

Bayleys commercial property agent Bill Wilson said a lot of potential tenants were adopting a "wait and see" approach due to the uncertainty around external influences such as overseas economic situations, the general election in November, inflation and talk of increasing interest rates.
"The future is bright, there are just so many other factors outside our control that are influencing decision makers.
But this was not a reflection on Rotorua, more of the market generally.
"I think, once we get the Rugby World Cup and the election behind us, we will start to see a marked improvement."