Mount Gambier’s main street has morphed from a retail strip into a central business district and subsequently recorded the lowest vacancy level in the last decade.
Herbert Commercial Senior Property Consultant Shae Landon said the city centre had developed from a retail hub into a true business and high-end retail location.
“Having the two shopping centres now, we have Mount Gambier Central and the Marketplace providing that sort of retail location, what we have seen is a lot of services coming to our CBD,” Ms Landon said.
“We have observed a need to then service the increased activity from offices and the services industry, so we have seen an increase in hospitality offerings, which has surrounded those new businesses, we are seeing the likes of health services, we are seeing NDIS support providers and really creating a central business district.
“In line with that, we have seen this breath of life come into some old buildings and it is really exciting to see them evolve and the way they have morphed and changed to fit in with the central business and high-end retailers.”
Ms Landon said an example was national companies tenanting Commercial Street, such as Linen House which occupies a space which has had a life as a mechanic workshop and more recently a book shop.
“We have also seen the likes of new restaurants come in, for example the Mexican restaurant and cocktail bar Casa De Tequila which has truly converted the corner of Mitchell Street and Percy Street,” she said.
“That building has actually just recently been fully tenanted, so we have a combination in there of health services, support services and hospitality all within the same complex, so a complete rebirth of that building, it has given it a new life.”
Ms Landon believed purpose-built centres such as the Marketplace and vacancy in Mount Gambier Central prompted the main street’s change from a retail outlet to a central business district.
“The transition period created a vacancy level which caused some concern, however we then saw vacancy start to reduce with the need for services to be centrally accessible and located.
“The current vacancy level is the lowest it has been in the last 10 years, with the introduction of the NDIS schemes and other forms of government funding for support-based services, these services are needing a home,” she said
Ms Landon said the vibrancy of the main street was exciting because it created an environment where people wanted to be.
“They can come to the centre of town for their business needs, for their services needs, they can obviously still access some of their high-end retail, fantastic hospitality,” she said.
“Another recent addition to the Main Street we have been involved in is the new Ba-Mi restaurant which has been very popular, set up beautifully, fantastic food, so a really high level of tenancies filling in our central business district.
“With the high level of businesses that we are attracting, we are also seeing a modernisation.”
Ms Landon added that while the business hub had developed in the city centre, the eastern and western ends of the town had also experienced further growth and spaces being filled and developed for larger premises, including Health, light manufacturing and light industrial.
“We have got services within the building industry, we have got mechanical services, we have got spaces that are being again modernised and creating bulky goods-type retail tenancies,” she said.
Ms Landon said an example of this was the addition of BCF, Petbarn and Supercheap Auto.
“Where we have now got the central business district and then as we go out to the next layer you are seeing the slightly larger spaces that are either providing for a more clinical approach to our health or we are seeing a bulkier end retailer, we have a very ideal main street,” she said.
