$306 million Tauranga City Council civic precinct project<\/a>, includes a civic whare, exhibition gallery and museum, new library and community hub in the CBD.<\/p>\nCouncil projections indicate that by early 2035, the civic precinct could have triple the number of people visiting the city centre, and this would average about 5500 people each day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis reflects strong confidence in the area\u2019s future and provides encouraging evidence that leading organisations see lasting value in the city centre,\u201d the spokesman said. <\/p>\n
Foot traffic figures from the council showed in December 2025, there were 430,902 visitors compared with 318,979 in June 2025, an increase of about 35%. <\/p>\n
Grey St and Elizabeth St had a rise in foot traffic in the same period, increasing from 74,540 in June to 75,275 in December, a 1% uplift.<\/p>\n
![\"Tauranga]()
Tauranga city centre\u2019s future civic precinct, Te Manawataki o Te Papa. Photo \/ Tauranga City Council<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly signs, including increased foot traffic around newly opened public spaces and regular events, point to a gradual recovery rather than an immediate shift,\u201d the council spokesman said.<\/p>\n
Mount Maunganui\u2019s retail market shifted from full occupancy in 2024 to some vacancy in 2025. <\/p>\n
According to Colliers, total vacant retail floor area increased from 28,450sq m to 29,169sq m, representing a 2.43% vacancy rate and three vacant tenancies. <\/p>\n
This was due to one large listing, the former movie theatre, and did not reflect the high demand for smaller spaces on the main street.<\/p>\n
In 2024, there had been no recorded vacant retail space.<\/p>\n
Mount Mainstreet manager Jay Banner said historically, Mount Maunganui had an \u201cextremely low\u201d vacancy rate within its retail sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not a main street that\u2019s full of a whole bunch of chain stores. We\u2019re a main street that\u2019s got a lot of boutique-y stores, and we draw crowds from all over New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said retailers were more cautious about filling vacant spots. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have some space about to become available, which may take longer than normal to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said under \u201cnormal circumstances\u201d, there would be huge demand to fill vacancies, which would be taken up immediately after a retailer left. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just think at the moment it\u2019ll be hard, I guess we\u2019ll see with these couple of tenancies that have come up.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Mount]()
Mount Maunganui\u2019s retail market shifted from full occupancy in 2024 to some vacancy in 2025. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Banner said trade had slowed compared to other summers, but he believed it would bounce back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bulk of revenue is done across December, January, February, and winter can get very quiet, and that\u2019s the concern at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colliers Tauranga industrial and retail broker Rachel Emmerson said muted buyer sentiment, limited tenant inquiry, and soft design-build activity contributed to a quiet year.<\/p>\n
\u201cTenants are cautious to commit to additional space, and businesses have been consolidating premises as opposed to growing their footprint.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said, however, there had been a \u201cnoticeable increase\u201d in genuine tenant interest and commitment. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith economic conditions gradually improving amid a stable interest rate environment, we are seeing a noticeable increase in activity as we move into 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The combined vacancy rate for office and retail space across Tauranga and Mount Maunganui was 10.49% in December…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[806,60780,31426,1550,2199,8449,2082,111,43,139,69,29432,644,1227,38401],"class_list":{"0":"post-315060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-as","9":"tag-builds","10":"tag-cbd","11":"tag-centre","12":"tag-city","13":"tag-ease","14":"tag-for","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-optimism","20":"tag-retail","21":"tag-tauranga","22":"tag-vacancies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}