Council candidates find solutions to counter empty shops

Candidates of all political persuasions are looking to address the problem of empty shops.

Retailers are struggling to compete with online competition and suffering from less foot traffic thanks to online food delivery services. Picture: Richard Walker

EMPTY shopfronts have become a key issue for the southeast suburbs in the upcoming Brisbane City Council election with problems at Bulimba’s Oxford Street, Stones Corner and Westfield Carindale making headlines.

LNP Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced a Suburban Shopfront Activation initiative yesterday, giving emerging businesses an opportunity to set up in empty shopfronts and bring new life to the suburbs.

Cr Schrinner said the council would match property owners with temporary tenants and offer incentives of $2000 to help emerging businesses cover a temporary shop fit-out, visual merchandising and leasing costs and to owners of vacant shopfronts as an incentive to make their space available for short-term leases or lower rent.

Cr Schrinner said registrations were now open for property owners and interested tenants to express interest in being matched and receive the $2000 incentive.

The Greens also announced a policy to introduce a vacancy levy to provide incentives to landlords to lower rents on homes and retail spaces to make them more affordable to tenants.

The initiative would introduce a 5 per cent annual levy on capital-improved value, charged to owners who deliberately left homes, land and commercial properties vacant for more than six months of any 12-month period.

In January Labor’s mayoral candidate Patrick Condren revisited the party’s policy to scrap the footpath dining tax and announced a new “suburban taskforce” addressing parking and precinct improvements.