Roadworks reduced customers to ‘slim pickings’, Thorndon Quay businesses say

Thursday, 10 October 2024

Bordeaux Bakery's closure raises concerns for Thorndon Quay businesses. Owners express fears over high rents and reduced access due to ongoing roadworks, signaling tough times ahead for the area.

A furniture shop on Thorndon Quay has experienced a “tremendous” drop in foot traffic after ongoing roadworks outside the store.

McKenzie & Willis Wellington is next door to Bordeaux Bakery, which on Tuesday announced the closure of all three of its stores across Wellington, blaming the council’s removal of car parks.

In an email to Wellington City Council shared with The Post from Bordeaux Bakery owners Anthony Bates and David Pearce, the bakery described the removal of car parks as “harmful” and “catastrophic”.

“This cycleway, which caters to a select few, has cost us our business and resulted in the loss of 41 jobs – real livelihoods of real people, now shattered because of your reckless disregard for the wider community.”

Road works outside McKenzie & Willis on Thorndon Quay.

The email said the council had failed to conduct a proper business impact study, and believed the financial impacts of the project were grossly understated.

“We raised concerns, offered alternatives, and voiced our frustrations at every turn, only to be ignored by council staff who were more interested in ticking boxes than engaging with the real, on-the-ground impact of their decisions.”

Neville Aliferis, the manager of the furniture shop, said customers who visited their store from the street were now “slim pickings”.

A vandalised sign about the Thorndon Quay upgrades.

Fridays and Saturdays, their best days for business, used to see 60 to 80 customers coming through the doors. Now they were lucky to have 20.

Road cones and concrete slabs were shifted to make way for delivery trucks, and customers braving the construction would park in some cases hundreds of metres away, with shop workers carrying the furniture to customers’ cars.

Thorndon Quay, he said, was the wrong place for a cycle lane conversion, and he guessed 90% of the businesses along the stretch were shops relying on car parks.

“Our clientèle are not quite the clientèle that would hop a bike or public transport to carry an armchair,” he said.

Aliferis said the loss of foot traffic had hurt the business, with their upholstery work suffering the most.

“People want to see and feel and touch everything. It’s very customised.”

But the store had an advantage being able to conduct at-home consultations and deliveries, and having eight “well-established” branches across the country.

Brendan Carter said Gar-Fare Cafe sales dropped 40% for the five months roadworks were outside the eatery.

Aliferis said the council’s proposal for a $1500 micro grant to struggling businesses was “ridiculous,” when so many months of damage had been done.

Brendan Carter, co-owner of Gar-Fare Cafe, said his cafe was “living proof” the roadworks were to blame for their loss of sales, with the five months of construction from Februrary to July resulting in about a 40% drop in sales.

He said the five months had been the most difficult he’s had in his 17 years of business and while support from regular locals had kept their heads above the water, Carter said the tradies, who used to be their main source of sales, had dropped from everyday visits to once a week.

‘It’s hard to say whether it’s going to kill the Quay, but I hate to think Thorndon Quay is going to be the cautionary tale for other suburbs.“

Carter described the $1500 micro-grants as an “insulting” amount.

Wellington City Council spokesperson Richard MacLean said the micro-grants proposal was being finalised and details would be revealed next week.

Paul Robinson, Thorndon Quay Collective chairman and The Woolstore director, said the micro-grants deflected from the real issues, which were that property values along Thorndon Quay will have plummeted, businesses were suffering, and the pipes had not been repaired.

Mat Lear, co-owner of Lulu Bar and El Horno on Courtenay Place, said it was “heartbreaking” to see places like Bordeaux close after 30 years.

The proposed cycleway running through the centre of the outdoor seating in his street - the city’s main hospitality precinct - was a backwards step for business owners, he said.

“We understand these works need to be done but the success of businesses in the area need to be at the heart of these plans and their roll-out to avoid further closures of venues people know and love.”