Murray Read-Smith is unable to lease the ground floor of his Durham St property. Photo / John Borren, SunLive
A Tauranga landlord says he is “bleeding money” and unable to lease part of his CBD building because of the bus stop outside.
Murray Read-Smith, who owns a building on Durham St, said he has been unable to tenant the ground floor since the bus interchange relocated to outside his property in June 2022.
One tenant, a law firm, broke their lease early in January 2023 because the bus stop seats were right outside their windows, he said.
”The law office couldn’t even do business because a lot of their clients were older people and there’s noise outside [and] often a bit of scuffling going on.”
The tenant stayed for six months, but “they just couldn’t take it”, he said.
”So it’s a long time without tenants.”
Security guards are stationed at the stops during peak times and at night, said Read-Smith.
Asked if the lack of tenants had a financial impact, Read-Smith said: “We are bleeding money”.
Of the six leasable spaces in his building, only the three top-floor tenancies were leased, he said.
The bus interchange was moved from Willow St to Durham St temporarily to make way for Te Manawataki o Te Papa, the council’s $306m civic precinct project.
Tauranga City Council was yet to decide the permanent home for the stops and suggested the southern end of Durham St.
However, this idea was met with opposition from landowners, who didn’t want the stops outside their planned developments.
Read-Smith said the permanent bus stops should be in front of Baycourt Community and Arts Centre, further up the street and outside the Durham St parking building.
He also has plans to develop a five-storey apartment building with a basement carpark and ground floor retail.
Read-Smith said he was reluctant to progress the plans until the council decided on a permanent spot for the bus stops.
Council transport development team leader Tom McEntyre said the council “fully sympathised” with people affected by issues with the temporary bus interchange.
The council’s goal was to make it safer and easier for people to move around Tauranga, while minimising negative effects as much as possible, he said.
After the bus interchange was relocated the council and its partner agencies decided to replace the interchange with several main bus stops in the city centre, said McEntyre.
The location for some of these stops was confirmed by the commissioners at a meeting on March 18.
”Progress has been slower in the southern part of the city centre because there are many businesses and building developments that might be affected.
”We’ve spent a lot of time discussing possible locations with business owners, property owners, tenants, developers and other people who might be affected by new bus stops in this part of town.”
These included people in Durham St for local bus stops and people in parts of Elizabeth St and Spring St for a possible new inter-regional bus stop, he said.
”Over the past three months we’ve connected with them through workshops, face-to-face meetings, drop-in sessions, emails, letters and door-to-door visits.”
Read-Smith said the recent consultation was constructive and enabled property owners to build a balanced perspective of the need for commercial development on Durham St.
The council was close to finalising options to present to the commissioners at a council meeting on April 29, said McEntyre.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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