Store owners are being offered month-to-month leases in ominous sign for the future
A Geelong Advertiser audit has found the majority of Market Square shopfronts are empty, with insiders detailing signs that a major shake-up could be on the way.
Geelong
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Operators in Market Square believe the failing shopping centre’s international owners are clearing out businesses ahead of what could be a major shake-up.
A Geelong Advertiser audit has revealed the majority of the complex’s stores are vacant, with remaining operators saying they are suffering due to diminishing foot traffic and rent hikes.
It is understood businesses are only being offered leases month-to-month once their multi-year contract expires, a sign that has left many tenants tentative about their ongoing future in Market Square.
Most recently, the owner of the Market Square Tattslotto confirmed he would not be returning to the store after April.
It is understood the business fell on hard times after Boost, Gloria Jeans and EB Games, which all pulled in a steady stream of customers, left the precinct.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, vacancies at the centre have spiked, with more than half of shop fronts now left empty.
When Tattslotto is vacated at the end of the month, there will only be 37 stores still operating, while 48 shops will sit idle.
Thousands of dollars have been spent on erecting large advertisements inside the shopping centre to cover the shop fronts where Cotton On and Lincraft used to operate, as well as several others.
Only one restaurant, Tasty Asia, still serves customers at the food court on Level One, with dozens of seats and tables left empty every day.
Shop owners who have persisted at Market Square said the only reason they were able to stay in business was because of loyal customer bases they had maintained over years.
Singaporean owners Davinski Nominees and their contemporary Knight Frank Pty Ltd, which runs the precinct from Geelong, have been criticised for being uncommunicative and dismissive towards tenants.
One shop owner, who wished not to be named, said the owners were “devastating” businesses.
“They are sending all the tenants and business owners broke,” they said.
Another shop owner, who wished to remain anonymous, said inaction from management to retain businesses had forced him to consider leaving the precinct if more dominoes continued to fall.
“I’m just going with the flow,” they said.
“They (Market Square management) don’t give you the confidence to stay.”
He said it took over a year for him to be introduced to anyone from the management team in person when he first set up shop.
Despite this, it is understood Market Square owners have recently offered a multi-year lease to one tenant, which has been the first in years.
The City of Greater Geelong confirmed it was speaking with stakeholders, including the land owners and Knight Frank, but did not detail what has been discussed.
Both Davinski Nominees and Knight Frank Pty Ltd have been approached for comment.
‘Huge potential’: Developers concern over costly redevelopment
Property developers and businesses have called on council to get serious about a possible Market Street redevelopment, spruiking its potential but warning an overhaul would be costly.
After selling the property to private investors back in 1996, the City of Greater Geelong has looked to develop a masterplan to reinvigorate the site, which has struggled following the Covid-19 pandemic.
The city’s executive director of placemaking Tennille Bradley said the council’s Market Square Quarter Masterplan, endorsed late last year, would make the precinct the “heart” of the CBD.
“The draft masterplan refers to Market Square Quarter as the heart of central Geelong, and identifies a number of projects that will enhance the area,” she said.
Potential options in the masterplan include a pedestrian ‘Eat Street’, an indoor market, widening of Little Malop St and adding a multistorey development on top of the precinct.
Critical of the council’s plan, Batman Management Group director Bill Votsaris said he found it “odd” that council had spent $250,000 to produce the plans for a property they didn’t own.
“I don’t think you can keep doing the same thing expecting a different result,” he said.
“It’s like developing a masterplan for your neighbour’s property.”
He said if Market Square was to be repurposed, it would require a significant amount of investment and would require the council to create a budget instead of drafting plans.
The “bones of the precinct” are more than appealing for any future developer, Mr Votsaris said, with an incredible amount of carparking space and its location in the CBD.
He believes those in charge should consider developing the land for commercial use to attract more office space in Geelong’s CBD.
He argued it should be used for “anything other than retail”, and said there was no shortage of retail space already in the area.
Geelong Chamber of Commerce chief executive Jeremy Crawford said he saw “huge potential” in the value of the precinct.
Mr Crawford said while he didn’t believe Market Square’s potential was being “wasted”, there hadn’t been any real effort to see what was possible.
“I would like to see that site as both a retail and creative uses hub; holding events, activating the street scapes and attracting businesses to the Geelong CBD,” he said.
“I would also love to see mixed-use development in the area to increase the energy in that space.”
He added that businesses in the area were often interested in Market Square in the past, but recently they indicated they had been turned off investing into the precinct.
“We are seeing the cost of operating in that space as increasingly difficult with no incentive for businesses to return to the centre,” Mr Crawford said.
Tenants have told the Geelong Chamber of Commerce they had been “hurting” because of the lack of foot traffic and because it had become an unattractive place to go as a customer.
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