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Guest speaker at out meeting on 20 March was Mark Knoff-Thomas, Chief Executive of the Newmarket Business Association. Mark was accompanied by Di Goldsworthy and Kelly O'Shannessey. Mark gave us a run through on what is happening in the Newmarket Area which is quite obviously going through an exciting evolutionary stage. The retail environment is competitive and will become more so with Westfield investing $800 million into 277 Broadway. Mark told us that Newmarket's position is still strong as a go to destination for shopping but the impacts of other developments including Britomart and Sylvia Park are being noted. In particular Sylvia Park with its recent developments have improved its brand offerings to shoppers which is meant that destination has become more desirable Mark gave us some numbers. There are 1300 businesses in the Newmarket area 20,000 workers and 4500 residents and that number is climbing. The catchment area is the Eastern suburbs and the core demographic of shoppers who visit Newmarket are women of 45+ years who are either professional or don't need to work because husbands do. There is enormous pressure on infrastructure and reserve areas within the old Newmarket Borough area. There are no open spaces for teenagers to go to other than Lumsden Green and the Station Square which quite frankly is a wasteland beside the Newmarket railway station. This is an issue that the Newmarket Business Association has addressed and continues to address with Council and Auckland transport. Mark told us about the development being undertaken at 277 – 309 Broadway. The 309 Broadway site will be fast moving retail with movie theatres and a restaurant zone on the top level. This will be linked to 277 by a elevated crossing above Mortimer pass and the intention is to 77 will be high-end shopping with David Jones as an anchor tenant at the Gillies Avenue end countdown and high-end retail in the spaces fronting Broadway. It is anticipated that the rebooted 277 – 309 Broadway will be appealing to a wider consumer group rather than the demographic mentioned above. Mark also told us about a proposed development on the Warehouse site at the northern end Broadway. The Warehouse has sold the land to Singaporean developers who, it is understood, will be developing high-end retail and residential apartments. Mark told us about the difficulties he has in dealing with Auckland council. Particularly the station Square which is bounced around between entities with nothing happening. The business Association has put in $50,000 of its own money to try and mitigate the area but that is not being supported by either the local board or the Auckland Council. Quite frankly Station Park is an eyesore and needs to be dealt with especially to mitigate some of the social issues which have been apparent in recent times with shopkeepers being threatened by you. Even if some improvements are made to the area station Park is a very hard sell however you look at it. It was a very interesting address by Mark updating members on what's happening in Newmarket. |
