Businesses: Appetite for change
Stakeholders say what Rotorua CBD needs to rejuvenate
Inner-city living, moving the courthouse and more art are some of the ways Rotorua’s CBD could be spruced up, businesses and residents say.
Earlier this week Rotorua Chamber of Commerce Bryce Heard said there would “never be a better time to come up with a brave new plan for the CBD” than postcovid-19.
He was in favour of more Ma¯ori architecture while Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick told the Rotorua Daily Post she would like to see more inner-city living.
She said the council had improved intersections, safety, beautification and gathering spaces in recent years, as well as establishing markets and other events to bring people into the CBD.
Business owners told the Rotorua Daily Post what they would like to see done to rejuvenate the inner city.
Jeweller Nick Cowley, who owns and operates The Refinery on Pukuatua St, believes bringing more living spaces into the CBD would stop it from “emptying out”.
“Maybe even if each business had another layer where owners could live above . . . Or we could make shops smaller and have the accommodation behind it.
“That could mean reduced rent for the people running businesses,” he said.
Cowley also said a lot of people stopped to look at the murals in the CBD.
“It would be great if we could put more murals in the blank spaces.”
The assistant manager of The Health Shop on Eruera St, Orle´a Rayne, said Rotorua’s music and interactive installation events for people of all ages had brought people into the city centre in the past.
She said Rotorua’s parking prices, availability and payment system needed improvement on streets that fed into Tutanekai St, however, she would like to see vehicles kept out of Tutanekai St itself.
“It would be good if more — or all of — Tutanekai St was for pedestrians, the way it is for the Night Markets. If you think of places in Europe where there is pedestrian access only, something like them.”
Sawan Nagra, manager of Pro Supplements Rotorua on Tutanekai St, said improvements to the likes of Te Manawa had made the
"It would be great if we could put more murals in the blank spaces."
city centre more attractive. “The Night Markets have also done a good job of bringing people in.”
Pukeroa Oruawhata Group’s developments include inner-city sites such as the Rotorua Central Mall.
The group’s general manager, Peter Faulkner, said moving the Rotorua courthouse could give “a more consistent feel to our main shopping street”.
He said rethinking the city’s capital-based value system for rates would support more CBD developments. “If you have a building and you spend money on it, the footprint and the utilisation of it don’t necessarily increase but the rates increase.”
Evolve Rotorua spokesman Ben Sandford suggested making better use of empty shops.
“Can we use them as temporary spaces for artists or community activities like yoga and community talks? If not can we at least put amazing images of local scenery or people in the windows to make them look good?
“At night we could do so much more with lighting and visual effects. Look what the Redwoods
Treewalk has done to the forest at night. Why can’t we do the same in the CBD?”
He supported pedestrianisation of Tutanekai St and said Rotorua needed more events in the inner city.
“Outdoor movies, concerts, inner-city sport: We need to give people things to do in the inner city and a way to engage them. The Night Market is a classic good example of this. We’ve created the market and people love it and come to it filling up the CBD.”
Karen Hunt held the inner city revitalisation portfolio when she was on the Rotorua Lakes Council but did not seek re-election last year. She told the Rotorua Daily Post there was “a fantastic opportunity and appetite for change” post-covid-19 for Rotorua’s CBD.
“All cities need innovation on a regular basis . . . We need to build a city for our mokopuna and tamariki rather than the one we are attached to.”
However, Hunt said change would not happen overnight and “public consultation is a huge part of it”.