Creating a shopping destination
Community-minded couple Chris and Warwick Dugdale have been hard at work strengthening and decorating their most recent purchase: a site of three storefronts on Fergusson Dr.
The two run the Dugdale Charitable Trust and have been doing up the shops with the help of the community.
Chris Dugdale was driving by the site last October when he saw a ‘‘for sale’’ sign and made a spurof-the-moment decision to buy the Fergusson Dr property.
A lot of work has been done since then including earthquake strengthening which they undertook themselves. ‘‘It was a big task,’’ she said. The couple consulted with engineers and also hired young Upper Hutt locals to help with the work. As well as the strengthening work, they painted the shops and the house behind them and are working on signage and bracketing for the shop fronts.
It now houses three retailers: Victoriana Florist, second hand store Yo Aotearoa and lash bar Lash and Brow.
The couple also offered to do up their neighbour’s curry shop.
‘‘We are trying to create this little destination,’’ Dugdale said.
To help small businesses, they were also trialling a novel approach to shop leases: leasing by the square metre.
Juanita Mariee runs Lash and Brow. When she was looking for space for her lash bar, she found she wouldn’t take up all the space in one shop.
Instead, the Dugdales offered to lease her space at a rate of $10 a square metre in one of their shops. Mariee has leased a section of the store and Dugdale planned to offer the extra space to other businesses just starting out.
‘‘It’s become a really good opportunity. You don’t have the pressure of a long-term lease,’’ Mariee said.
Starting up a business was intimidating and Dugdale said they wanted to help people take that first step.
People could take out a small area in the same store space as Mariee and trial their business idea to see if it worked for them.
Any new retailers would have to sign up for a four-week bond.
They were planning on offering three-month trials but Dugdale said they were open to people coming in for a month or so. They were also open to more than two people sharing the space.
‘‘We’ll see how many we can fit.’’