Batemans Bay Business and Tourism Chamber president says high rent is killing night-life
High rent has been cited as the reason why a south coast town is struggling to keep any night-life afloat, following the closure of a waterfront bar which lasted only 12 months in the coastal hamlet.
The South Coast News
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A south coast business leader has cited rent becoming ‘too high’ as the reason why a coastal hamlet is struggling with providing a sustainable night-life.
Batemans Bay Business and Tourism Chamber president David Maclachlan said unless landlords began to “provide reasonable rent”, night-life in the town wouldn’t work.
“I can’t name names, but I can think of five other night-life style businesses which may soon be shutting their doors because of high rent,” he said. “Landlords need to be reasonable.”
The calls for lower rent come after ‘Mami’s Bar’ on Clyde St, had to close their doors after only operating for 12 months.
The bar’s Facebook page announced the closure last month, citing mental health as a large contributing factor for the decision.
“With heavy hearts, we’ll saying goodbye to our fun little bar,” the post read.
Mr Maclachlan said the closure of the waterfront bar was also a result of the “unfortunate high rent” situation.
“They told me they just couldn’t afford to keep paying the high costs to keep the doors open,” he said.
The closure of the bar has relit sparks among residents online, who are complaining about Batemans Bay’s lack of night-life.
Mixed in these complaints remains the story of how one pub (which continues to operate) no longer provides live music past 10pm.
According to residents, the ‘Bay View’ pub, which has been a fixture in the town since 1920, used to be a hotspot for a “bustling night-life”. However, the days of loud music and dancing at the facility were killed when a retiree apartment was built a street over.
“The previous owners received too many complaints from residents, so they just had to stop the live music about 10 years ago,” a spokesman for the pub said.
After purchasing the business in 2015, current owners Sarah and Peter Ratcliffe attempted to bring live music back, albeit, to no avail.
“I miss the good old days when the Bay View stayed open until 2am and it was so packed inside and out that you could barely move,” resident Michelle Lewis said.
“Great idea building a retirement home next to a pub so the retirees can complain about the noise of live music and people enjoying themselves.”
The lack of night-life and high rent in the Batemans Bay CBD is something which has not been lost on Eurobodalla mayor Matthew Hatcher who said he and his councillors were working hard to bring it back to the area.
“I think it [night-life] can survive in Batemans Bay,” he said. “We need to have more residential areas outside the CBD to allow for more commercial use in the middle of the town and that is exactly what we are doing with recent developments.”
Mr Hatcher also cited he was having discussions to figure out ways to lower rent into the town, to give new businesses better chances at survival.
“I think, in the future, the bay will have good night-life, I genuinely do and there is so much potential for it too,” he said.
“There’s a lot coming, we just need to get it all done.”
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