Healesville main street: high rents, lack of tourists blamed for string of shops closing

RENTS “higher than Toorak” and a lack of tourists stopping in Healesville are being blamed for the sudden closure of almost a dozen shops in the town’s main street.

Some Healesville main street traders say recent council street maintenance work hurt their businesses. Photo: Daniel Pockett

RENTS “higher than Toorak” and a lack of tourists stopping in Healesville are being blamed for the sudden closure of almost a dozen shops in the town’s main street.

It’s prompted a call to support the town’s businesses in the lead-up to Christmas.

Jenny Morris recently posted on Facebook about the empty shops, including the recent closure of two ice creameries and the Subway sandwich shop.

“We see people come and go with a dream of having their idea come to fruition and it is so sad to then see it crumble,” Ms Morris said.

“I know rents are a killer in many of the shops in this town.

“I’d like to say how I appreciate some of our beautiful shops and once again make a commitment to buy from them as often as possible.”

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She advised people to think about buying local as Christmas neared.

“And to all you shop owners having a go, I admire you and hope you have a profitable year,” Ms Morris said.

Healesville’s Fluid Lounge owner Garry Christie said there were many reasons traders could be struggling, and rent along the street was quite high for many of them.

Mr Christie said his own rent was quite steep but the IGA supermarket had to pay substantially more.

“There are quite a number of shops in the street owned by a few key people,” he said.

Mr Christie said while the nearby wineries were a boon for the Yarra Valley, they were not always bringing trade to the shopping precinct.

“They tend to bring buses in and back out again and there’s not a lot of benefit for the town,” he said.

Mr Christie said he thought the addition of discount supermarket chain Aldi moving into the street would help bring more foot traffic and competition to the area.

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Former owner of Feather and Twine Anna, who declined to give her surname, said she was forced to close earlier this year because of high rent, a lack of customers and council street maintenance work that dragged on for 10 weeks.

“My regulars couldn’t get a park out front due to it being blocked off and people would look up the street and not cross because of the work,” Anna said.

“I lost about 90 per cent of my business in that period and fell behind rent and bills too much to recover. I had no choice but to liquidate.

“The rent is higher than Toorak and without the consistency of locals let alone tourists, it’s a killer.

“Support local wherever you can, be consistent, share the love between competitors of similar businesses.”

Yarra Ranges environment and engineering director Mark Varmalis said the council installed a pedestrian and disability ramp and two disabled parking bays in April but the contractor made sure carparking was available to customers at all times.

“Four carparks were impacted during construction,” Mr Varmalis said.

“Council did not receive any formal complaints and the majority of shopkeepers were happy for the works to go ahead to make Healesville accessible to people living with a disability.”