Crippled city dining area served lifeline as intersection opens
A dining district that has been closed off to cars for more than a year due to major construction works is looking forward to the reopening of a key intersection.
Auckland city’s Elliott Stables was crippled by the coronavirus pandemic, with half of the eateries receiving notices ordering them to pay arrears in September.
But with the Wellesley St West and Albert St intersection reopening today, there is hope the district is slowly coming back to life.
The intersection was closed to through traffic in March 2020 due to construction on the $4.4 billion City Rail Link train upgrade.
Works in this area will conclude today and move downtown to the Victoria St and Albert St intersection, which will close on Tuesday for two years.
Robert Aylwin, 49, is the owner and head chef at the restaurants Bao Baby Bao and Smash Bros in Elliott Stables.
He expects to close one of his businesses within a year after enduring losses of around $70,000, and is sceptical matters will improve.
‘‘There’s just nobody here. Everybody is working from home, and they’re not coming back,’’ he said. ‘‘The landlords want way too much for the rent, they’re asking for $80,000, for a tiny little shop in a CBD that’s on its last breath.’’
Aylwin believes the Auckland city business district is in decline due to the coronavirus lockdowns, more people working from home and construction being a constant presence.
He said it’s ‘‘going to be mess’’ for many years.
‘‘I will definitely not continue on with Smash Bros, I’ll end up closing that, and I’ll go back over to Bao Baby Bao. I can make it survive, but if everyone around me goes down, than eventually I’ll go with it.’’
Five out of 11 eateries at Elliott Stables dining village were served notices to pay rent and operating expenses or possibly lose their leases in September.
One restaurant, Besos Latinos, liquidated in October after being unable to pay arrears of tens of thousands of dollars.
Jordan MacDonald, 31, opened Double Double coffee bar two weeks ago in Elliott Stables. and remains hopeful for the district, despite his other business ventures in the city recording losses of $800,000 in a year.
‘‘It’s busier than we anticipated,
and the foot traffic on Elliott St has been quite decent,’’ he said. ‘‘I think at the moment it is slowly coming back to life, we don’t have the tourists or international students, but there are
still a lot of people that live in the city, and not everyone can work from home forever.’’
MacDonald said the city is starting to ‘‘roll back to normal’’ with the reopening of the intersection, and will return to the ‘‘beast it was before’’.
‘‘We’re just looking at opening weekends soon, so that will probably give us a boost if people know it’s easier to get here.’’
Data from landlord Icon Group shows foot traffic down 16 per cent in Elliott Stables over the past year. In the week to June 14, 8414 people visited the dining village.
City Rail Link is a project to build two underground train
tunnels and stations by late 2024 and transform Britomart station into a two-way through-station.
Chief executive Sean Sweeney said the intersection switch is necessary to build Aotea station, which is expected to be the country’s busiest railway station when it opens in 2024.
‘‘Shops, cafes and restaurants and other businesses and offices in the area ... will always be accessible by foot. When we finish building our world-class rail system for Auckland, the benefits will be huge – CRL will double the number of people within 30 minutes of travel of the central city.’’
‘‘There’s just nobody here. Everybody is working from home, and they’re not coming back.’’ Robert Aylwin