Suburban shopping strips begin to bounce back after the crippling effects of COVID-19
As Brisbane’s suburban shopping strips pick up the pieces following the coronavirus shutdown, some businesses are warning that there could still be tough times ahead.
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SUBURBAN shopping strips have been battered by the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak but there are signs our streets can and will bounce back.
Not all businesses have survived the crippling economic impacts with many forced closures and a dramatic drop in sales.
National Retail Association CEO Dominique Lamb said recently that around October could prove problematic for those currently doing it tough.
“If people really do stop spending in that notoriously quiet period before Christmas we’ll see mass closures,” she said, referring to the health of retail and towns right across the state.
Through a suburban health check in greater Brisbane it has been found there are some positive indications the suburban shopping strip is starting to heal however.
Take our tour around the southeast and see what is happening in your region.
HOW IS YOUR LOCAL SHOPPING STRIP COPING? Comment at the bottom of the story.
REDCLIFFE PDE, REDCLIFFE
17 per cent of shops empty or businesses closed (6/34)
While cafes, restaurants and retail outlets along Redcliffe Pde have reopened, not all survived the pandemic.
At a recent count six shops were sporting either closed or for lease signs including Lagoon Point Cafe.
There are many more for lease signs throughout the CBD’s shopping arcades but many of these were already hanging in the windows before COVID-19 hit.
Ray White Commercial Northern Corridor Group director Ashley Rees said of its 380 managed tenancies in the Moreton Bay region nine per cent were forced to close due to the impacts of COVID-19.
Another 34 per cent were indirectly impacted.
KING ST, CABOOLTURE
Caboolture’s CBD is mostly back to normal after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, business owners described the CBD as a “ghost town”.
But with the library and gallery reopen, cafes and retail outlets, it almost feels like business as usual.
About five shop fronts along King St have For Lease signs on them, but some of these had been hanging in shop windows before the crisis struck.
Caboolture Square Shopping Centre is bustling although the Kmart remains closed to customers – operating as just an online distribution hub.
The RSL and all cafes in streets surrounding King St have also reopened.
MT OMMANEY SHOPPING CENTRE
At Mt Ommaney’s sprawling shopping centre, about seven shopfronts remain closed.
The prominent centre boasts some 140 businesses, including the triple threat of supermarket giants Coles, Woolworths and Aldi.
Mrs Fields Bakery and Cafe manager Ricky Hasan said there was a major drop in traffic from March to May as a result of social distancing regulations.
While business has picked up recently, he said the cafe suffered an 85 per cent loss in trade.
ANZAC AVE, KALLANGUR
ONE quarter of businesses in the Kallangur CBD are either vacant or closed.
From a count of small businesses along Anzac Ave between Supercheap Auto and School Rd, including gyms, 16 of a total 62 businesses were not operating.
The majority of these were completely vacant and had for lease signs in the windows.
Others were vacant with no for lease sign, or were closed with no visible indication that they had been in operation for some time.
The nearby Lillybrook Village shopping centre though was almost fully leased and operational, with just one cafe closed down.
Kallangur was a suburb with economic difficulties even before the pandemic, but it is set to reap the investment wave from the new Petrie university campus and has potential to bounce back stronger than ever.
BLACKWOOD ST, MITCHELTON
Gillian Letham, owner The Woods Neighbourhood Bar on Blackwood St said: “I think the community here has really embraced us and a lot of the other shops on Blackwood St.
“I talk to the people at the cafes down the street, they tell me they are busier now than they were this time last year. It’s amazing and I think we are really lucky.
“I know that’s not the case for a lot of businesses out there, so we feel pretty amazing to have a community that has embraced us.”
The Woods is expanding into the shop next door, vacated last year when a fire ripped through the dry cleaner that was operating there.
NUNDAH VILLAGE, SANDGATE RD, NUNDAH
Ben Tibben, Nundah Now chairman said: “The businesses in Nundah have been up against it and COVID has shaken a few loose. But that said I think Nundah has stuck together.
“Everybody is in survival mode and Nundah Now is doing everything we can to help businesses get by.
“People have been actively trying to support local businesses, we haven’t had to call out local support. Nundah will survive.”
Nundah Now has been offering businesses free membership and encouraging local businesses to cross promote to help as many as they can to stay viable.
WYNNUM CBD
The impacts of the coronavirus haven’t resulted in many closures on the main strip in the Wynnum CBD.
Before the global pandemic, 12 out of 40 shops had for lease signs on their windows with the number the same more than three months later.
The only shop to have closed permanently is the legendary P&C Chicken Shop with most remaining open during COVID-19 and the ones who closed, only shutting their doors temporarily until restrictions were eased.
General manager of Wynnum Business David Bateson said he did not think the pandemic had a real impact in the area as far as businesses closing but obviously had a major impact on shops financially.
However, he did say some businesses thrived during the pandemic.
Even though for lease signs have been a common feature of the Wynnum CBD strip for many years, local real estate agent Kevin Stewart, from Lamonds, said he believed that was changing.
He said more businesses were starting to move into the area and said the number of for lease signs would dwindle down in the coming months.
CLEVELAND BLOOMFIELD STREET
The picturesque bayside CBD of Cleveland has become a “no man’s land” with empty shops galore as patrons go elsewhere.
A stroll down its drawcard Bloomfield St recently showed at least seven empty shops visible from the sidewalk.
Turn the corner on to Middle St and six more vacant premises tell a tale of downturn.
Cut through Woolworths and its recently upgraded carpark – now largely sans trees – and yet more ‘for lease’ signs occupy shopfronts on Queen St and so the sorry sights continue.
Even The Coffee Club shut its doors after a 23-year run on June 7.
All of which has left business owners fighting to stay in the black.
Donna Joslin has managed CROCS footwear store on Bloomfield St for the last eight years and confirmed it was hard going.
“In the last two years business has really dropped,” Ms Joslin said
“There were eight shops for lease in this street alone prior to COVID-19.
“People tend to go to Victoria Point or Capalaba and Cleveland has become a no-man’s land.
Cleveland CBD suffers more loss with Coffee Club closure as lease signs flourish
SOUTHSIDE
Mount Gravatt Central, Logan Rd, Mount Gravatt
At Mount Gravatt Central, a strip straddling Mount Gravatt and Mount Gravatt East, there are vacancies but the mood is optimistic.
Mr Roberts Barber Shop’s Jaime Lendic said while the business endured a tough few weeks in late March and early April, they are bouncing back with “a lot more newer customers than before”.
While the two tenancies next door to her are vacant, she said neither are COVID-related – the smoke shop “wasn’t right for the area” and the neighbouring salon had been vacant for a while.
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She nominated parking as the street’s biggest concern, which manager of Mount Gravatt Mower Centre Repairs Greg Whapham agreed with.
That aside, “All I’ve seen is positive,” he said.
He said his store was one of the lucky ones which benefited from the virus by virtue of more people staying at home and rediscovering home maintenance.
While there were no apparent permanent closures, one business which shut at the start of the pandemic and continues to remain temporarily closed is Cafe Boulevard.
Michael Sunderland, a local realtor on the Mount Gravatt Main Street Committee, said he still saw the owner around the strip and believed it would reopen soon.
Another one closed is Trek Bicycle, contained within the Romano Chambers building at 1379 Logan Rd, which now appears to be completely empty.
Mr Sunderland said he believed the store merged with its Woolloongabba location.
He said the strip suffered due to the lack of people travelling on buses during the peak of the virus, which reduced foot traffic, but that local cafes and food outlets continued to “trade well”.
Mount Gravatt Central is slated to receive $30,000 from Brisbane City Council in a ‘local business partnership’ which would see the money made available for a wide variety of projects, such as street beautification or additional surveillance to prevent graffiti and other vandalism.
Logan Rd, Stones Corner
There dozens of stores for lease on this strip. There are more than 15 on the street and many more contained within Stones Corner Village and Stones Corner Plaza shopping centres on the strip.
Both of these centres look particularly dire, with about half a dozen vacancies in the Village, anchored by Aldi and Healthyworld Pharmacy and which also counts Sushi Train and Elite Handcrafts Gifts and Homeware among its last remaining tenants.
Meanwhile, the Plaza is even worse, with what appears to only be a 20 per cent occupancy rate – however, Michael Weibler, owner of Books at Stones and president of the Our Stones Corner business group, said the Plaza vacancies were to do with month-to-month contracts and a future development.
Mr Weibler said that the few businesses which COVID closed at Stones Corner, including photography stores and food outlets, “were going to go anyway”.
“All of the ‘For Lease’ signs around are, by and large, not COVID related,” he said.
Mr Weibler said he believes the strip has ultimately been benefited by the COVID trend of people sticking closer to home for their essentials.
Commercial real estate agent Geoff Esdale said it’s “not rocket science” why people are flocking back to places like Stones Corner – they’re a “bit more aware of close contact in the major shopping centres”.
He said he had just leased two small stores in the past week, indicating to him “green shoots of revival”
LOGAN
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.
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.
Beenleigh, Loganholme hardest hit with high commercial vacancy rates
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.
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.
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.
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.
LOGANHOLME
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.
HOW IS YOUR LOCAL STRIP COPING? Comment below