Beenleigh, Loganholme hardest hit with high commercial vacancy rates
Shopping strips and high streets across an entire region south of Brisbane are feeling the pain of COVID-19. Some have survived against the odds, but others are still reeling as small retailers exit the market.
Logan
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COMMERCIAL property vacancy rates are at an all-time high in parts of Logan, where real estate agents and government welfare services are soaking up some empty rental properties.
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While Logan’s small businesses are struggling and commercial property vacancy rates have soared to as high as 30 per cent in parts of Loganholme, real estate agents and government welfare services have been the big winners.
Many have moved into prime real estate corner premises in shopping strips and high streets, mainly in Loganholme, Beenleigh and Springwood, filling some commercial premises left vacant by failing small businesses in the past six months.
Some parts of the city have fared better than others during the coronavirus lockdown but the traditional shopping precincts of Springwood and Beenleigh are by far the worst affected.
But Logan City Council acting chief executive Silvio Trinca remained upbeat and said data showed businesses in pockets such as Springwood and Beenleigh had suffered set backs but “on the whole” most traders had survived.
Mr Trinca said trade in Springwood and Beenleigh had been “up and down like it always has been” but business at shopping centres at Browns Plains and the Hyperdome were slowly trending upwards.
“The calls that we have been receiving have indicated businesses are still there and operating,” he said.
A quick walk through centres at Logan Central, Beenleigh, Springwood, Browns Plains, Hyperdome, Loganholme, Holmview and Cornubia found centres with varying fortunes.
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Logan is home to international companies such as John Deere, Metcash Hardware, DHL, Queensland Logistics Service, Huhtamaki and Go1.
Raine and Horne commercial Property said Logan’s commercial property market comprises 80 per cent industrial and about 10 per cent office and 10 per cent retail in key suburbs such as Slacks Creek, Loganholme, Meadowbrook, Kingston, Woodridge, Underwood, Browns Plains, Hillcrest and Berrinba.
BEENLEIGH
In Beenleigh, a quick walk down the once bustling main City Rd high street and adjoining Main St, found 19 of about 56 street-front facing, bottom-floor businesses were shut.
Of the businesses operating, very few were small commercial enterprises with the majority being welfare services, employment agencies or real estate agents and businesses which do not rely on foot traffic.
Traders took a dim view after Beenleigh’s biggest and arguably most notable restaurant, Serranos, announced it would shut at the end of this month.
Six traders have already started moving out of an office block on City Rd, where they say there is a high crime rate due to drug addicts going to a drug and alcohol rehab clinic.
Three large premises front City Rd are in the process of being refitted to be reopened as one large employment agency.
Undertaker Ray Leon, whose Simplicity Funerals operates out of a City Rd premises, said the high vacancy rate was not something new.
“When we first moved here, this building had been vacant for two years after it had been burned out,” he said.
“All the services that people used to come to City Rd for have all moved to the Beenleigh Marketplace where there is a huge brand-new development — so they are all surviving they have just moved out of City Rd.”
But other Beenleigh traders said the Beenleigh-Yatala Chamber of Commerce had ignored them and they were in the process of formalising an alternative commerce group to represent the area.
Darren Black from Black Locksmiths, whose City Rd business has done well during a spike in crime, said previous strategies to bring in outside investors had not worked.
“This is the worst I’ve seen City Rd in the 28 years I’ve been here,” he said.
“City Rd is turning into a dump – the council, federal and state governments are happy to take out taxes but don’t care about their constituents.
“I have never been so disappointed with government – it makes me feel as if they want all businesses to leave city Rd so that it can become a government welfare services strip.”
But not all was doom and gloom in the area.
Logan Chamber of Commerce president Stewart Fleming said more markets would open at Distillery Rd, where Zarraffa’s had started a restaurant and the Beenleigh Rum Distillery was also taking tours.
He said many of the businesses which shut in the past two months, were teetering on the brink of closure before coronavirus.
“City Rd and Beenleigh need a good bakery, a good butcher, deli and coffee shop to bring foot traffic back,” he said.
“The town square is a mess and is awful but if you put a bakery in the middle of it, that could change.
“The feeling in Logan is that this time has been really beneficial for businesses to reinvent themselves and there is a positive feeling in the Chamber of Commerce — which may not be representative of all businesses in Logan but there is a feeling that we are going to bounce back,” he said.
LOGAN CENTRAL
A strip of shops on Station Rd, in the heart of multicultural Logan Central/Kingston is bucking the trend and have two vacancies out of 47 retail shops.
Station Rd at Logan Central is busy with only two shops out of 49 closing in the past six months and traders saying they are surviving.
The majority of shops take “cash only” and are small mum and dad retailers supplying international goods to migrant workers.
Zing Zing Grocery shop owner Niung Hlawnching said business along the street had been slower than usual but on the whole the traders were surviving.
The two shops that shut, the Agha Juice Centre and electrical wares store Local Appliance Rentals, were ready to close last year.
Even an international travel agent is still trading at the shopping strip, which is the site of the Sunday Woodridge Markets.
Paradise Travel Agency, which first opened at Station Rd in March, is still servicing customers conducting international money transfers.
Travel Agent Sima Kamali said business had been slow but steady and she expected it to start trending upwards.
“we still have clients who want to transfer money home, even though there is no international travel,” she said.
Less than 1km down the road in Logan Central Plaza and at the Overflow Discount Store, on nearby Wembley Rd, the story is different with more than 12 businesses shut and lease signs out the front.
Overflow will close its Logan Central store but its Browns Plains and Beenleigh outlets will remain.
SPRINGWOOD
There were 99 commercial properties advertised for lease on Domain Holdings Commercial real Estate site for Springwood and according to Logan Chamber of Commerce there were a “handful” that did not survive.
Three food shops out of the 34 retailers at the Arndale Centre shut over the past four months.
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Grand Plaza at Browns Plains had five of 185 traders close their doors in the past six months including Hungry Jack’s in the food court. However, the fast food chain is still operating on nearby Browns Plains Rd.
HYPERDOME
Three retailers closed temporarily at the Hyperdome including the homewares store Ishka, which went into voluntary administration but was able to reopen for trade again last month.
The only store that remained closed at the Hyperdome this week was Hairhouse Warehouse.
BRYANTS RD SHOPS
Lease signs were prevalent at Bryants Rd shopping strip at Loganholme but less than 1km away at the Woolworths-anchored centre at Cornubia, retail space was at a premium with all 12 shops filled.
More than 25 office and commercial spaces are listing online for premises on the service road along the Pacific Highway at Loganholme.
The most obvious vacancy is the Fernwood Gym building at 4014 Pacific Highway.
The land is earmarked for motorway extensions and The Transport Department is negotiating land resumptions in the area. Some former tenants said the landlords were land banking or writing off the vacancies as tax deductions.
