LANDLORDS, traders and the city council have been urged to bite the bullet and share the load in finding a solution to Warrnambool’s worsening retail confidence.
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Property valuations and council rates have been described as at least 10 per cent above market, leases too expensive and inflexible, shop sizes too small and traders as too parochial.
With 14 vacant shop spaces in the main Liebig Street strip, and numerous empty premises on other streets, the situation has been described as a crisis needing an urgent solution.
A senior university academic and a real estate leader yesterday threw their opinions into the ring and said the answer was not as simple as the call from traders last week for cheaper parking.
Both agreed a major new attractor store was a key to reversing the decline along with fairer leases to encourage new boutique shops.
Deakin University chairman of marketing management Michael Callaghan said traders must take off their parochial blinkers and review marketing and service style rather than blame parking fees and rents.
“There’s no local loyalty by shoppers any more, so businesses need to do something that engenders that,” Mr Callaghan said.
“Anything that is positive the central traders internally attribute to their own actions and anything negative is externally attributed to the council — parking, online shopping, high rents, poor streetscape.
“The solution must be unique for Warrnambool with everyone buying in and not a cookie-cutter approach from a consultant’s report.”
Real Estate Institute of Victoria regional delegate Bruce Ludeman called for the city council to undertake a special revaluation of central commercial properties to reflect lower market values.
“Retailing is hard work just to keep the doors open with high costs and expenses — it’s happening everywhere,” he said.
“Landlords set the rent off valuations. There are still operators out there wanting to set up in the CBD, but they need to get a good deal and a suitable-size premises.”
Mr Ludeman said a recent revaluation unfortunately did not reflect lower central property market values, which in many cases were at least 10 per cent below the city council’s rates calculations.
“We also need to get some larger shop spaces,” he said.
“I’m not sure if the council’s revitalisation plan will bring new tenants in.”
Last week commercial agent and property manager David Turner told The Standard he had almost given up on trying to find tenants for Liebig Street because the spaces were too small for clients seeking large-format shopfronts.
Mr Callaghan said central property values would continue to fall if they remained vacant.
“Council can try to plaster over it by throwing money into modifying parking areas and forgoing income, but if landlords insist on holding rents to ransom, such that shopfronts remain vacant, it’s not a sustainable long-term solution,” he said.
He suggested the council pull stakeholders together to try to attract a major new business into the CBD.