A Tauranga retailer has packed up and relocated his store out of the city centre because he “can’t see a future there” any more.

Bill and Francis Campbell opened their gift and souvenir store, Fancy That, in Tauranga in 2008, but moved to Mount Maunganui’s main shopping area two weeks ago.

Bill Campbell said parking charges being reinstated last year and a loss of nearby carparks when the Devonport Rd parking area was closed had affected business.

”We’re moving to survive. If we were going quite nicely in town, we would’ve stayed.”

The Devonport Rd parking lot was closed earlier this year for redevelopment, and city council offices will be built on the site.

Tauranga City Council brought back paid on-street parking in December to increase the turnover of parks after CBD workers were found to be parking in them all day.

Prior to that, free parking was established in mid-2020 to help businesses struggling in the wake of Covid-19.

Campbell was “chuffed” with the free parking because it was something he had pushed for to help businesses not only with Covid, but with the construction occurring around the CBD.

”The customers were a lot happier when the parking was free.”

He said there were a lot more empty carparks after the charges were reinstated.

Campbell also had concerns that about 150 parks, he understood, would be removed from The Strand when it was closed for redevelopment.

The northern area of The Strand will be transformed from a carpark to a green reserve later in the year.

”Taking the parking will kill it,” said Campbell.”It’s probably okay for professional people and businesses who don’t rely on foot traffic. But for retail, who relies on foot traffic, to take away handy accessible parking — that’s 150 less people we’re going to have visiting our shops.

Bill Campbell: "The customers were a lot happier when the parking was free." Photo / Andrew Warner

”And there is nobody visiting now. You’ve got to have foot traffic to make things work,” he said.

The ongoing construction and redevelopment in the city had also had an effect on people visiting and revenue, said Campbell.

He said the past five or six years had been “terrible” financially.

”It has affected our income seriously.

”The more construction work you have around the city, it might be what they call progress, but it certainly doesn’t help business.

”It affects retail seriously. The whole atmosphere of the CBD is being dulled by all the construction work.”

On the move to Mount Maunganui, Campbell said he was “pleasantly surprised” at how well it was going.

”It’s nice to see there are no parking wardens,” he said. Parking in Mount Maunganui is free.

In response to Campbell’s concerns, council general manager of city development and partnerships Gareth Wallis said one of the council’s “main priorities” was to revitalise the city centre.

”After years of inaction, we are now in catch-up mode.

”We acknowledge that this revitalisation won’t happen overnight and really feel for those businesses who are struggling right now,” he said.

”We are committed to working with them and other organisations, such as Downtown Tauranga, NZ Police and our partner councils, so together we can support our city centre through this period of significant transformation.”

Paid parking was reintroduced in the city centre in December.

On Monday the council agreed to reduce the paid on-street parking hours from 6pm to 5pm on weekdays and made Saturdays free, after it was found charging for parking had reduced the number of people visiting the city.

Wallis said these changes showed the council was listening to the concerns of business owners and the community.

”As well as these parking changes, we recently broadened the scope of the City Centre Development Incentive Fund, which will enable us to implement a wider range of initiatives to support the ongoing growth and development of the city centre for a short-to-medium term.”

The council was working through how the fund would be allocated, he said.

With The Strand redevelopment, Wallis said it was working through how many carparks would be removed but there would be a drop-off zone and some maternity carparks.

The council has previously said it could be 145 parking spots.

”The upgrade of the Dive Cres carpark across the road will help to offset the loss of carparks in this area,” he said.

The northern area of The Strand will be transformed from a carpark to a green reserve. Image / Supplied

On parking, council infrastructure general manager Nic Johansson said paid parking was reintroduced to support retailers and customers concerned people working in the city centre were using on-street parking spaces all day.

”It’s still early days, but we are seeing a noticeable increase in available parking spaces during weekdays, which is great news for people wanting to park for a short time, close to their shopping destination.

”As intended, we’ve been closely monitoring the situation and we’ve found that Saturdays and weekday evenings are key times when paid on-street parking could be seen as a deterrent for people wanting to spend time in the city centre.”

He said the council wanted to remove that barrier, which is why it made the changes on Monday.

Campbell said the council should go back to the two hours of free parking because it was the “most successful thing” for businesses.

– Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air