CBD had changed over time<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cRaglan wasn\u2019t designed to be a city, and neither was Tauranga really, but for whatever reason we all chose to move to paradise.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it was like trying to build a beach town into a city, which would take time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf everyone doesn\u2019t chip in, doesn\u2019t start coming to the city, keeps talking about the bad things and don\u2019t start talking about the good things, then nothing\u2019s ever going to change.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just going to be a real uphill battle for the people with businesses here and for the people that work here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Little Long Espresso owner Amy Joyce, whose business is on Spring St, said daytime foot traffic had changed over the past few years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still good days, but customer flow feels less consistent than it once was, and many CBD hospitality businesses are having to work much harder for the same level of trade.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said rising costs were the biggest pressure facing daytime operators. This included wages, food costs, utilities, and rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cCombined with softer and less predictable trade, for many smaller owner-operated caf\u00e9s, margins are extremely tight.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Little]()
Little Long Espresso is on Spring St, and owner Amy Joyce said cafes in the city centre were dependent on weekday office foot traffic. Photo \/ Kaitlyn Morrell<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile most business owners understand the long-term vision for the city, the ongoing disruption, parking difficulties, road changes and accessibility issues have made it harder at times for customers to quickly and easily visit the CBD.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said cafes were \u201cheavily dependent\u201d on weekday office traffic and daytime convenience, and had noticed a shift in office worker patterns.<\/p>\n
\u201cHybrid working and more flexible work-from-home arrangements seem to have reduced the regular Monday-to-Friday customer base that daytime cafes traditionally relied on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joyce was still \u201coptimistic\u201d about the CBD\u2019s future and said Tauranga was growing \u201crapidly\u201d with lots of city centre investment.<\/p>\n
New developments in the CBD include Te Manawataki o Te Papa, a $306 million council civic precinct project that includes a civic whare, exhibition gallery and museum, new library and community hub.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CBD has strong potential to become a much more vibrant and attractive place for both customers and businesses again,\u201d Joyce said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge for many operators is simply navigating the current transition period.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hospitality NZ chief executive Kristy Phillips said the organisation had heard from Tauranga members about the central city\u2019s \u201coperating challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said hospitality businesses across the country were facing challenges since Covid and as people spent less.<\/p>\n
![\"Kristy]()
Kristy Phillips Hospitality NZ chief executive. <\/p>\n
\u201cLocally, these factors have been further exacerbated by projects impacting foot traffic and accessibility of the central city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillips said Tauranga\u2019s issues largely related to \u201cplacemaking, attractiveness and vibrancy\u201d.<\/p>\n
Downtown Tauranga manager Genevieve Whitson said the hospitality sector continued to face ongoing challenges nationwide, particularly among Mainstreet organisations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is due to a number of factors, including the fuel crisis, people are pulling back on non-essential spending, and also due to the current financial market.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said Downtown Tauranga was \u201cvery sad\u201d the Crown and Badger closed as it had been an \u201ciconic\u201d part of the city centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis plays into the bigger challenge for the hospitality sector nationally right now and is not isolated to just this area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tauranga City Council previously told the Bay of Plenty Times that, with the city centre undergoing a significant period of transformation, council staff worked alongside businesses to minimise disruption and provide ongoing support. <\/p>\n
The council also said it had heard strong feedback about parking and understood the concerns being raised. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe know people need to be able to access the city centre easily, and our approach is focused on maintaining availability and turnover so visitors can find short-stay parking, while also accommodating weekday commuters.\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":"He said the \u201crealism\u201d since opening was that he was \u201ceasily down\u201d 40% in sales compared to his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,10166,31426,6097,15557,57334,111,139,69,8262,37865,5654],"class_list":["post-451820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-businesses","tag-cbd","tag-down","tag-hospitality","tag-margins","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-spending","tag-taurangas","tag-tight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451820","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=451820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}