Plan to fix ‘donkey’s breakfast’ of rundown shops
Businesses fight back to fix city: ‘Hopefully we can give Mackay’s city heart the justice it deserves’
Business
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A CAMPAIGN to get Mackay's city heart throbbing again has begun, but businesses need to buy in to the vision for the dilapidated shopping district.
For the past 44 years, Keith Burston has lived, worked and invested in the Mackay's CBD.
Mr Burston runs two CBD retail businesses with Urban Wave Surf and Skate on Gregory St and Dames and Dandies on Wood St.
The veteran city business owner said the opportunities in the shopping district were vastly underestimated compared to shopping juggernauts, like Caneland Central.
"We wouldn't go into a shopping centre in a fit," Mr Burston said.
He said the city heart was being overlooked, despite its significant foot traffic and drastically lower rents.
But he said encouraging more businesses to set up shop in the empty, and often run down, strip malls was difficult.
"They're in such bloody disrepair," he said.
Mr Burston said the situation was made worse by the large number of landlords from outside of Mackay.
"They know that they're tatty looking," he said.
"But they will tell you they don't have the money to fix them.
"It looks like a donkey's breakfast in the end.
"The public don't want to see the shops empty."
Mr Burston said the CBD revitalisation faced a "chick and the egg" dilemma.
He said businesses were not looking to move there because of limited foot traffic, and customers would not visit because of the lack of shops.
Mr Burston said the way to break that cycle would require landlords to significantly reduce their rents.
"People have to bring the rents way down," he said.
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Mr Burston said he had managed to negotiate with his former landlord to reduce rental costs.
"He was better off getting something and not nothing," he said.
Mackay Region Chamber of Commerce committee member and City Centre Reference Group chair Scott Jamieson said the CBD vacancy rate had been a thorn in the organisation's side for many years.
"Mackay city heart has struggled for the past six to seven years," Mr Jamieson said.
He said plans were in motion to restart CBD activity, including free builder appraisals, beautification projects and artists designs to re-imagine an "awful" stretch of real estate.
"We're getting some quiet wins on the board," he said.
Mr Jamieson said the chamber had organised five builders to check out the vacant shops around town.
He said these estimates would allow potential tenants and investors to see how much it would cost to transform the buildings back into functioning businesses.
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Mr Jamieson said the chamber had secured funding to hire an artist to create a concept design for parts of Victoria St left abandoned by businesses.
He said the designs would show off the potential of a strip of boarded up shops, opposite the Westpac branch on Wood St.
"People find it hard to visualise what that could look like," he said.
Mr Jamieson said the push for business buy-in would mirror Mackay Regional Council's campaign to beautify the city heart, with funding secured for the next six to 12 months.
He said moves to encourage people to live in the city was an "important piece of the puzzle", as it would create a locked-in audience for city businesses.
"I think people need to value the benefits of trading from the CBD," he said.
"I think if people have a vision for what their businesses could look like it's a great place to be.
"It's a huge job … Hopefully we can give Mackay's city heart the justice it deserves."
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