LOCK, STOCK AND CHEW SMOKING BARRELS
LAUREN Hyland will close her iconic Gold Coast bar and restaurant Onyx at Broadbeach after 11 years this weekend because of road closures, a 50 per cent drop in trade and crippling rents. Ms Hyland said it was more viable to close and still pay the $400,000 in rent for the final two years of her lease. “At 9.30pm (last Saturday) Onyx was the busiest place on the strip and we had two tables,” she said. “I just burst into tears and said ‘What the hell has happened to Broadbeach?’.”
The Gold Coast’s dining mecca is in the grip of an economic downturn after a swathe of prominent businesses closed their doors.
ANDREW POTTS, TANYA WESTTHORP AND KATE PARASKEVOS
THE Gold Coast’s dining mecca is in the grip of an economic downturn after a swathe of prominent businesses closed their doors.
Around a dozen eateries and retailers have disappeared from the city’s premier restaurant precinct in the past six months, blaming high rents, the prolonged redevelopment of Surf Parade and the Commonwealth Games.
The cruel cocktail has affected trading by 30-70 per cent, says Restaurant Industry Support Gold Coast Association president Glen Day.
“It has been really tough. The four weeks leading up to the Commonwealth Games was the quietest time I have known in the 40 years I’ve been here for,” he said.
“Now winter is coming in ... you’ll see some businesses are using their GST money just to survive.”
On the back of popular bar Onyx announcing its imminent closure, at least three more are expected to shut following the end of next week’s
Blues on Broadbeach festival.
The closures have led to calls for the Gold Coast City Council to rethink the Glitter Strip’s tourism strategy and put greater emphasis on dining and food.
Onyx owner Lauren Hyland likened Broadbeach’s plight to that of “Main Beach of four years ago”, when a number of shops closed on the seaside strip of Tedder Ave.
“The only reason it’s pumping again is because they reduced the rent, so people would open there again.
“We are one of the busiest restaurants on the strip. When we go there’s going to be a lot of other places that go, too.
“It’ll even affect the surrounding hotels, Airbnb. If there’s no commercial premises downstairs in operation, why come to an area that’s dead?”
Ms Hyland said businesses pushed to reinvigorate the Broadbeach strip by requesting Surf Parade be turned into a pedestrian mall on weekends with bustling market stalls positioned along the road. It didn’t happen. Bootleg Juice Bar operated in Broadbeach for three years and closed its doors on April 15, the final day of the Commonwealth Games.
Owner Anthony Jenner said the downturn began in 2016 when the council began its protracted nine-month redevelopment and upgrade of RESTAURANT BOSS GLEN DAY
Surf Parade, robbing local businesses of their customer base.
The $1 million revamp in- cluded the removal of some on-street carparks and streetscaping to beautify the area ahead of the Commonwealth Games. The project ultimately ran months overschedule and $500,000 over budget.
“You could have held anything there,” Mr Jenner said. “You could have held the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony there and nothing would have happened — there’s nobody around anymore, they left the area. We need to reinvent tourism here so it is not just about Surfers Paradise and the theme parks.”
Foreign and domestic tourism expenditure in Australia totalled $130 billion in 2015-16, with retail spending accounted for 39.7 per cent, including $36.1 billion on food and $15.6 billion on non-food retailing.
A Tourism Australia “consumer demand” research study in June last year showed 38 per cent of people rate “good food, wine, local cuisine and produce” as an important factor for destination choice.
Leading property industry figure Max Christmas said the Gold Coast was facing the “worst economy I have seen in 25 years”.
“The real picture is that the whole city suffered dramatically with the downturn from
THE FOUR WEEKS LEADING UP TO THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES WAS THE QUIETEST TIME HAVE KNOWN IN THE 40 YEARS I’VE BEEN HERE FOR
I
Easter and the Commonwealth Games and I think it is the worst we have ever had.
“I own shops all over the Gold Coast and all of mine have been affected. This will ripple right through the economy.
“Change won’t happen overnight for things to turn around but this year you will see a terrific number of closures.”
The struggle facing Broadbeach business comes despite a multi-billion influx of development to the area in the past year.
The Star, which recently completed construction of its boutique The Darling tower, will turn the first sod of its $400 million hotel and unit tower in July. It has already gained approval to build other towers of 65, 74 and 54 storeys.
Other developments proposed are the $100 million Class Broadbeach and $200 million Signature Broadbeach.
Council puts $2.7 million in funding towards Broadbeach Alliance annually to promote the area and run events.
Broadbeach Alliance chief executive Jan McCormack said she felt a turnaround was “just a matter of time”.
“People are coming into Broadbeach but I don’t know why they are struggling. Easter and the Commonwealth Games was a struggle for everyone but (Broadbeach traders) are no different from a heck of a lot of other people who were caught short.
“It’s sad but there’s not much that can be done. There is far more competition across the city as well as within Broadbeach. A turnaround is just a matter of time.”
Ms McCormack said 12,000 people came through Broadbeach daily, with numbers increasing during special events. About 40,000 people visited for the Supanova convention and 250,000 to festivals and events across the calendar.
WHEN will our politicians wake up and realise small business is the lifeblood of the Gold Coast economy?
At least 10 businesses have closed in Broadbeach in recent months after never recovering from a Gold Coast City Council-imposed nine-month road closure of Surf Parade.
Several more restaurants along the city’s dining mecca are expected to collapse in coming weeks.
These struggling restaurants persevered through the painful road closure — coughing up $18,000-a-month rents and council levies — even when trade dropped by 80 per cent because patrons were turned off by scaffolding erected right up to their doors.
Broadbeach icon Onyx will close its doors this Sunday and owner Lauren Hyland summed it up perfectly. “Who would want to come here when you’ve got a digger next to your head?”
Still, they toughed it out, promised of a golden return when the city’s biggest-ever event, the Commonwealth Games, landed on their doorstep.
It never happened.
People stayed away and, after a quiet Easter period, Broadbeach resembled a “no-go” zone.
That pain was magnified when Mayor Tom Tate told struggling businesses to “have a look at your own product” when they raised concerns about the Games ghost town.
Another stake to the heart came weeks later when the Bulletin revealed the Gold Coast City Council had been warned of a downturn in trade during the Games, as part of a detailed report into the impacts and opportunities of the event.
The dire situation Broadbeach eateries find themselves in is just the latest sting in a series of poorly thought-out moves that have crippled local business.
Last year, Glitter Strip institution Howl at the Moon closed its doors just three years after relocating to the Surfers Paradise riverfront from its decade-long home in Broadbeach’s Niecon Plaza.
Howl’s owner Lou Cerantonio wrongly believed council promises that the Surfers Riverfront would be revamped into a bustling precinct like Brisbane’s South Bank.
As he gutted his failed venue, Mr Cerantonio lamented the “slow redevelopment” as hurting his business chances.
And don’t forget the hundreds of shopkeepers who went bust during the years-long construction of the tram line through the heart of Surfers Paradise — and the businesses who still complain they’re losing trade because there’s no parking.
Now Gold Coast City Council is ploughing ahead with plans to sell off Bruce Bishop carpark — one of the few remaining parking options in Surfers — despite loud protests from business owners who say it is crucial to drive trade.
The council and State Government say they’re all about driving jobs and investment in the city, but then expect small businesses to cop it sweet when they cut access their source of income — customers.
Small business is the engine room of the Gold Coast economy. We have 63,000 of them. City leaders, it is time to start listening.