Riverside Market providing rent relief to tenants to survive lockdown

Tuesday, 14 April 2020

The Riverside Market in Christchurch has offered its tenants rent relief to help them bounce back as soon as the coronavirus lockdown is lifted.

While the coronavirus pandemic has plunged many small businesses into financial turmoil, one of Christchurch's most popular hospitality attractions is doing all it can to help its tenants survive the alert level 4 lockdown.

Tenants at Riverside Market and Riverside Retail Lanes in the central city have been offered rent relief over the next three months in an effort to help them keep their doors open. Tenants' operating costs have also been cut in half to ease some of the financial pressure caused by the lockdown.

The eerily quiet Riverside Market in Christchurch during lockdown.

'We see helping our tenants survive these turbulent times as both a contractual and moral obligation,' Kris Inglis, co-owner of Riverside Market, said.

'They are often small, family-run businesses that have poured their heart and soul into their operating model, fit-outs, stock and staff, and we want to make sure they have every chance of working through these challenging times and build their businesses up again over the coming months.'

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Christchurch's Riverside Market and Little High Eatery are owned by Inglis, Mike Percasky and Richard Peebles.

Inglis said they have given tenants 80 per cent discount on their rent for April, 50 per cent discount on their rent for May and 20 per cent discount for June.

'We have also managed to reduce the operating costs down by about half and we are then sharing those reduced costs on a 50/50 basis. This effectively means the [operating] costs to each tenant are reduced by 75 per cent of the usual amount,' he said.

He said helping tenants keep their doors open was key to operating a successful market and decided to offer support regardless of whether they were contractually obligated to do so or not.

Each of the 60 tenants in the Riverside Market and Riverside Retail Lanes indicated they were ready to reopen as soon as the lockdown was lifted. Most had taken advantage of the government's wage subsidy programme in order to pay staff and be ready to go as soon as they got the green light, Inglis said.

'We have provided [the rent relief] to keep them going over the next few months which will probably be a bit slower in trade. But we believe [business] will build over the next few months as we transition out of the restrictive levels of Covid-19.'

To help tenants continue operating as much as possible within the different alert level restrictions, Riverside Market had also developed online ordering, delivery and voucher systems.

One of the measures introduced is the Market box, containing fresh food, meat, vegetables, fish and other raw ingredients that can be ordered online and delivered to customers' doors.

Customers will also soon be able to buy vouchers online at a 20 per cent discount which can be redeemed at any Riverside food or retail outlet when lockdown is lifted. If not all used at once, the balance would be held on the voucher and could be used at a later date.

'Our tenants really need cashflow now and this will be a huge help if everyone gets on board and buys one - or five,' Percasky said.

A takeaway food delivery system would be up and running when the alert level 4 lockdown was lifted to allow Christchurch customers to get their Riverside Market and Little High Eatery 'fix' from the comfort of their own home.

Inglis remained hopeful Christchurch businesses would bounce back from the coronavirus sledgehammer much quicker than the 2011 earthquake devastation.

'We believe the people of Christchurch really love and feel a special connection with Riverside,' he said.

'It really is time for people to make a conscious effort to use an alternative to the supermarkets which over the past month have been doing a roaring trade with sales about three times their usual with little discounting.

'We really need the people of Christchurch to support these local producers and smaller, independent, family run businesses that have been doing it tough for the past month or so.'