Lismore business owners share ideas on rebuilding the CBD

The President of the Lismore Chamber of Commerce and Industry says Lismore CBD will “never be the same” but she has three key ideas for the business community to gain strength.

Lismore Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Ellen Kronen believes the CBD will “never be the same” but says many in the town’s passionate businesses community want to rebuild.

Mrs Kronen, who runs a gift shop in the Star Court Arcade on Molesworth Street, says three key policies must be followed if Lismore’s business community is going to gain strength.

She says financial support for commercial landlords, community consultation and flood resilient rebuilds can at least give people confidence to return to the CBD.

These key ideas come after Premier Dominic Perrottet announced a reconstruction corporation to address the big rebuild for the region.

Mrs Kronen says incentives need to be put in place to make sure the town doesn’t see people moving away because of less employment opportunities and services.

“People are passionate about retaining their buildings and their businesses, they want to return,” she said.

“For landlords, the way building ownership is structured, the building might be owned by their super fund so they rent their own building, or a super fund owns it and isn’t run as a business, we can look into changing that.

“Commercial landlords need some more financial help because it will help business along the way.”

Mrs Kronen is adamant that a major rethink needs to occur around types of building materials that are used in the CBD, which the reconstruction corporation can sink its teeth into.

She says business owners have spent months ripping out entire walls lined with gyprock and rotted timber which lined the streets of Lismore for weeks.

Businesses could even get respite from insurance companies if they had more resilient building structures.

Premier Dominic Perrottet will work alongside Steve Krieg in the new reconstruction corporation Picture: Cath Piltz.

“People need to be thinking about materials they will be using because in my shop it’s concrete with render on the top and that’s not changing,” she said.

“Anything that goes in there will be as minimal and washable as I can make it, it might not suit every business but (it’s better than) having walls that are lined with gyprock”.

Lastly, she was pleased to see the reconstruction corporation had community representatives and local mayors involved in making decisions but warned that wider community consultation is still needed because local knowledge is “invaluable”.

“Don’t try and restrict community consultation, if people will agree to disagree, that’s the best kind of consultation,” she said.

“While people are thinking and talking about solutions that’s where the reconstruction commission needs to come in. You need an organisation that has the vision, the plan and then the money in order to get it done”.

‘Made the impossible possible’

Tracey Ryan opened up her clothing retail store ‘Fashion Profile’ yesterday with a queue heading out the street.

She described her reopening as having “made the impossible possible”.

Her store has been refurbished and redesigned and looks as if it hasn’t been touched by the floods.

Mrs Ryan, who has been running her store for seven years, lost over $250,000 during the February flood but managed to access the $50,000 small business grant.

However, she acknowledges businesses can’t open up if their landlords aren’t cared for either.

“We had a great landlord who helped us with painting and refitting, we were going to open up on March 28, but instead we found ourselves packing up for flood number two,” she said.

“Personally for me we have what we need because we have a great landlord who is passionate about the family building, there are other people that want to do the same thing but don’t have the funds to do it.

“If there was more support of landlords that in turn will help the people leasing to come back.”

She has heard businesses like Daley’s and Blueys are keen to re-open and are committing to staying in the CBD despite the challenges ahead.