Smaller spaces may be the key to Barton St’s future
The key to revitalising one of Hamilton’s shopping hubs may be smaller spaces, says a long-time retailer.
A number of big brands have pulled out of Barton St over the past year or so, with electronics store JB Hi-fi relocating to The Base, and Torpedo 7 shutting up shop, leaving behind big shoes to fill.
Women’s clothing shop Caroline Eve was another to close its Barton St store, along with financial services provider and retailer DTR.
Midas Jeweller owner Paul Briggs, whose luxury jewellery store has been on Barton St for nearly 12 years, and Victoria St before that, said he thought cutting up some of the bigger stores into smaller one could be an option to attract businesses.
Briggs said the atmosphere had changed over the years, essentially since The Base opened in Te Rapa in 2005.
“You go out there certain times of the day and look down the street and you go, ‘Is anybody around?’.”
There was less foot traffic since JB Hi-fi left, he said, even with the help of Wilson’s $500,000 upgrade to its parking site from Victoria St through to Barton St.
“I would say it’s not only that, it’s a little bit of money tightening at the moment as well, and it’s hard to get anything thriving in town, you know, because we’re very spread out.”
Briggs also pointed to the recent opening of Made in Hamilton East, which saw a number of retailers relocate to the indoor market styled after Christchurch’s Riverside Market. Every time there was something happening outside the areas of town, it took a little bit away from the city centre, Briggs said.
The removal of two hours’ free parking was also a concern, particularly for older people.
Mike Neale from NAI Harcourts said turning some of the bigger retail spaces spaces into smaller ones was an option, and one it had been toying with for the former JB Hi-fi building. “Because it has two glazed sides, that’s one that lends itself to being split.
“I guess the key is to really find a tenant for the majority of the building and see what you’re left over with, and trying to fill that. It’s costly to go in there on a punt and try and split it without having some other tenants saying ‘Hey, we want to part of this’ first.”
While the current environment was challenging, there had been other businesses moving in, and there was a real opportunity for retailers to leverage off the quality of the existing tenants along Barton St, Neale said.
“Barton St is quite an interesting one. While we’ve seen a few go – we’ve seen DTR, JB Hi-fi and Vape Crew, and obviously in due course, Torpedo 7 – we’ve also seen quite a few new retailers in, and I think they might be the key.”
“If you go down Racquet Lane off Barton St, Fossick has opened up. We’ve also seen Variety World opened up next door to Kilt, and there’s a furniture retailer going into the old Caroline Eve space.”
There were also a couple of parties looking at where JB Hi-fi used to be, as well as a retailer looking at the Torpedo7 site, Neale said.
Soul Gallery’s Lisa Voigt said the city was evolving and was in a real transitional period. “People have moved out but ...new people will move in, and they'll be different people. And that will bring some refreshment and some energy into the city.”
Soul Gallery had been on Barton St for 15 years, Voigt said. “We've been here so long so, you know, people know who we are. They know what we do, and we have a really good following of customers.“
The gallery didn’t rely on just the Waikato for business, she said, but rather the entire country. “We have a really busy website.”
“While we’ve seen a few go ... we’ve also seen quite a few new new retailers.”
Mike Neale, NAI Harcourts