The number of ‘for lease' signs is diminishing in downtown Tauranga with 19 new retail stores opening in the central business district since May.
Mainstreet Tauranga manager Kirby Weis says the stores have opened in the past five months and another dozen have relocated to new premises or changed ownership.
Pascoes is one of the new stores to open in central Tauranga in the last five months.
He says the signs are looking good for the city centre.
'There's no question it's been tough out there and it still is.
'Tauranga, like the rest of the country, continues to face tough economic times, but the good news for our city centre is these new stores bring new energy and show that there are plenty of brands keen to invest in our CBD – that bodes well for our recovery.”
Kirby says the range of new retail offerings includes national and local brands and some exciting new emerging names in retail.
'Pascoes have recently opened on Devonport Road, around the corner in Grey Street everyone's talking about the stunning new Tilly & Tiffen.
'Bay Betta Electrical has opened on 1st Avenue along with the Appliance and Furniture Factory Outlet and Square Fashion and 20 add to our enviable fashion offering with their new stores open on Devonport Road.”
Kim Farrant, owner of Tilly & Tiffen, a homewares and interiors store, says making the choice to open a store in Downtown Tauranga was easy.
'I wouldn't be anywhere else,” says Kim.
'I chose downtown Tauranga because I liked the diversity of the shops and I liked the fact it had a nice community feel to it.”
Square Fashion boutique owner Antoinette Smith believes things are looking good for downtown Tauranga.
'I think things are starting to pick up.
'It's been quite positive really. I do think a lot of that is because more and more stores are starting to open in the city centre and shoppers are realizing there's even more variety and choice.”
8 comments
OF COURSE THE CBD IS IT
Posted on 01-11-2011 11:16 | By SCOTT NUFFIN4U
But then along comes the Council and eliminates 300 car parks because "they want to" without any practical or realistic idea of the consequence of that on the CBD. In a few years calls will be made for more car parks and the answer will "Oh I wonder why that happened ...?" then more consultants will be paid heaps to think about why and dream up more ideas of how to fix it and so they will feed off that for the next 10 years and a massive $100m project plan will be "hatched" to reinvent carparks on the strand again.
or....
Posted on 01-11-2011 13:31 | By earlybird
you could take a positive outlook and say that the loss of carparks on prime harbourside land which allows a people friendly development could in fact lead to more people being attracted to the area for recreation. Parking cars on the waterfront is such a waste of a prime opportunity to improve the downtown Tauranga experience.
US TOO
Posted on 01-11-2011 21:03 | By Dreamdoors
Dream Doors now at 586 Cameron Road are proud to be included in the list of new / relocated businesses.
MISSED THE WORM MATE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted on 01-11-2011 21:22 | By SCOTT NUFFIN4U
@ Early Bird, my comments are the positive of it, sure the Strand is a nice peace of dirt, blah blah ... but of course if that were so then more would have happened to it in the last 150 odd years right ... think about it! There are reasons ... so let it be. The point of my comments is that the CBD is short of car parks on any given work day, although with some excitement they are now being taken away (therefore making the problem of all day parking worse, not better) this fails to address the issue of the replacement of said parking capacity thereby hampering the efforts of people to get to them, go to the CBD, go shopping and so on. I don't know how many people are going to park on Cameron Road and stroll down to the "new Strand wonders ..." then stroll all the way back (it will not be many), mean while some of those nasty street walkin curb limpet scheming ticket writing nasties will be feverishly writing tickets for the hapless public stranded ever longer on Cameron road or where ever else ... the CBD needs a car park building before the demise of the Strand, that is of course common cense and therefore escapes the remaining functioning brain cell at TCC, I rest my case!!!
my gripe
Posted on 01-11-2011 23:31 | By blocker
why is it that those clowns that give us parking tickets do not give the police cars tickets on durham street ..also diffrent zones have diffrent park charges ..
... also different zones have diffrent park charges
Posted on 02-11-2011 07:31 | By Murray.Guy
The different charges and maximum time (10 - 120min)are used to ensure a better spread of parking. The most sought after areas generally are higher. To encourage users into areas less desirable a reduced rate, and or a longer period may apply.
ZONE NOT IMPORTANT
Posted on 02-11-2011 18:45 | By SCOTT NUFFIN4U
@ MURRAY, that is not important Murray. The real problem for all is the "NUMBER" of car parks available. Opening the existing car park building in the evening does not help a single bit at all to remedy that. What seems to have escaped all and sundry is that the car parks on the Strand are used mostly in the daylight hours that then one would think makes it obviously when they are needed. Nothing and I mean nothing has been done to remedy that one little bit.
WELL PLANNED YEAH RIGHT
Posted on 04-11-2011 16:45 | By YOGI
@ Scott Nuffin4u, Mate it is all well planned, wipe out the car parks in 2012 and the "grand plan" then says that a new car park building will be built in 2019 or something whenever ... The obvious here is that there is a 'LITTLE WEE SMALL TINY GAP' between that all of the bright spark officials don't seem to have noticed yet! The SIX YEARS inbetween!
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