Murray Piesse, chairman of Te Ngae Body Corporate with plans to upgrade the Te Ngae shopping centre. Photo/Ben Fraser
Plans have been unveiled for a new look Te Ngae Shopping Centre aimed at breathing life into a complex some shoppers have called ghost-like.
Of the 20 main buildings that form the centre on Te Ngae Rd, five are empty.
Te Ngae Body Corporate chairman Murray Piesse, an owner of one of the empty shop buildings, has revealed to the Rotorua Daily Post artist's impressions of what stage one of the modernisation project will look like.
The plans are still in the detailed design stages and will be be completed when they go out for tender. Mr Piesse said they hoped that would be soon.
"It's a little shopping centre but it's got a good position," Mr Piesse said.
"Rotorua is experiencing a boom and we're expecting that to continue."
Stage one features new seating, new pedestrian access, a new sign and other changes to the entrance. The car park will also be modernised with painted asphalt.
Mr Piesse said this was a major priority, if they could make the centre look attractive then more businesses would likely want to move in.
He said the next stage would look at the buildings.
"We need to provide a better service," he said.
"If you're heading out of town we're the easiest to call into. We're not competing with the city shops; we've got our own population out here and we're providing a service to the community in Owhata and the surrounding areas.
"If we don't do this we're not going to attract more tenants. We've got to keep up with the times."
He said the development bill would be footed by the body corporate. As they were still in the early stages of the modernisation he did not know how much it would cost, he said.
Te Ngae Hardware shop owner Carl Mandeno has been a building owner since the centre opened in 1983.
He said an upgrade "would be nice".
"I've seen a lot of changes over the years, in the early days it was a really good shopping centre.
"We had a supermarket, it was very busy. It would be lovely to see it like that. It's looking tired and needs to be freshened up."
Mr Piesse said there had been cultural input from Te Roro o Te Rangi and Mokoia Community Association had also been consulted.