18 July 2024
Two years on: Ground floor success, first floor challenge
“Invercargill Central continues to see steady growth month on month for like-for-like stores which is bucking the national trend in shopping centres.”
Invercargill Central is now two years old and its centre manager says it has bucked the national trend in terms of growth in shopping centres.
Sunday marked two years since Invercargill Central opened to the public. It followed the ambitious public-private partnership where an almost entire city centre block was demolished and rebuilt.
Invercargill Central centre manager Kelvin Mooney – through Southland Business Chamber CEO Sharee Carey – provided an update as part of a Westpac Smarts event on Wednesday.
“Invercargill Central continues to see steady growth month on month for like-for-like stores which is bucking the national trend in shopping centres,” Mooney said in his update.
“We are now fully tenanted with retail, with one small and one medium food space on the ground floor left to lease.”
Mooney said a highlight was landing JB Hi-Fi and Ballantynes last year as tenants for Invercargill Central.
While demand has been encouraging for the ground floor space the first floor has proved more challenging.
Mooney said it remained a work in progress.
Developers had earmarked restaurants for the first floor but in the current climate, it had not yet generated interest in terms of tenants.
Hospitality has been the hardest hit in a challenging economic environment in recent times.
ILT CEO Chris Ramsay highlighted just how difficult it was for hospitality when he also spoke as part of Wednesday’s Westpac Smarts panel discussion.
“There is enough there to be scared about at the moment. In our last five weeks of trade two of those five weeks have generated income that was lower than 2022, and in the comparable weeks in 2022 we had a [Covid-19] traffic light situation which constrained demand.
“That’s how tough it is, it’s just putting it in real terms,” Ramsay said.
Ramsay said the ILT was taking the next few months to make sure they were okay but by the end of the year, they want to be looking at their next opportunity in terms of developments.
The Invercargill Central development has been a partnership between the Invercargill City Council and private investors, most notably the O’Donnell family.
Invercargill City Council CEO Michael Day – who was also part of the Westpac Smarts panel discussion organised by the Southland Business Chamber – said the council was trying to get a result for the city in terms of growth.
The Invercargill Central partnership has helped with achieving that in what has been a challenging time, Day said.
“It’s not something the council wants to be part of, in relation to commercial businesses, but we look at it from the community aspect in trying to create that atmosphere and getting that city heart pulsing again.”
Source: The Southland Tribune – 17 July 2024