Is the Sandy Bay strip becoming a ghost town?

The main retail strip of one of Hobart’s most prestigious suburbs has seen dramatic changes in the past year as numerous businesses have shut up shop and left the area. LATEST CLOSURES >>

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The main retail strip of one of Hobart’s most prestigious suburbs has seen dramatic changes in the past year as numerous businesses have shut up shop and left the area.

The Sandy Bay retail strip has seen a large volume of business closures in the past twelve months and locals are saying it’s having an impact on the atmosphere of the area.

Cory Young has worked at Nextra Sandy Bay Newsagency, located in the middle of the strip, for over six years and said it was sad to see popular businesses in the precinct closing so often, and said that he and many of his customers had noticed the high rate of recent business closures in the precinct and said it had left an emptiness in the area.

Cory Young of Nextra Sandy Bay Newsagents said the closures of popular stores had become frequent. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“I think the biggest thing I hear from customers every day is that there are so many empty businesses and how that doesn’t look good for Sandy Bay,” Mr Young said.

“We seem to have a heap of stores that come in for a little while and then close up shop and then another one moves in or the building stays empty,” he said.

Mr Young said a major impact to the area were the recent closures of three major banks along the precinct.

“In the last year we’ve seen three major banks close – the ANZ bank, Westpac, and NAB.

“Those banks brought a lot of traffic to the area, especially the older demographic that prefer to use cash over bank cards and using online banking,” he said.

“We’ve also had the Metz bar close and converted into the Chinese Hot Pot, we’ve had a number of stores in Magnet Court come and go, and now we’ve got Country Road closing which is a well-known and popular businesses in the area and losing them definitely has an impact on the atmosphere of the area,” he said.

Cory Young of Nextra Sandy Bay Newsagents. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

A Country Road spokesperson said the closure of the popular store was ‘in line with our retail network strategy’ and welcomed customers to their nearby Hobart store.

Another popular Sandy Bay business to recently announce its departure from the strip was hip coffee joint Sash Coffee, which had its last day of trading on June 25

Elrick Aubelack, who runs Sash, said the landlord had declined to renew the lease unless it was on a month-to-month basis for the duration of a year.

Mr Aubelack said he and his wife, Clare, couldn’t accept that offer.

“I was very emotional and a lot of people felt it and are still feeling it, I think,” he said of learning that Sash would have to shut up shop.

“Sash has been very, very, very good because we kind of created a community feel to the place.

“It’s one of those places where people just meet people, eat or run into people they haven’t seen in so many years. And people always come around and we have a chat. It’s all about the banter, it’s not all about coffee. And that’s why we created it.”

“It is definitely very sad, because it took time and a lot of effort to be able to do that.”

Mr Aubelack said he had leased a new space on Elizabeth Street in North Hobart, opposite T-Bone Brewing Co, where he would be opening a cafe called Wide Awake.

The Hobart City Council spent more than $1m upgrading the Sandy Bay retail predict in 2017.