31 March 2008

Proposed Giralang Shops - Destined to fail?

| Tempestas
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The ABC is reporting that the Giralang Residents Association is not rapt with the proposed DA for Giralang shops.

The upshot is 3 shops sharing 350 square metres of retail space with a mere 8 carparks is somehow considered to be a viable set of shops.

Looking through the documents I’m also a bit confused how the increased value of the lease is only $50K but maybe the rules for valuing property for lease purpose clauses share no relation to reality as I know it.

A cynic might suggest that the 3 shops are really 3 or 4 additional apartments awaiting conversion

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somewhere_between_bundah_and_goulburn8:53 pm 20 Mar 10

sepi said :

The supabarn owner was in the paper a few months ago saying he wants to open more shops but cna’t ever get the land to do so – he is always outbid by woolworths and coles protecting their monopoly.

Didn’t they own the Coles in Chisholm a while ago?

The supabarn owner was in the paper a few months ago saying he wants to open more shops but cna’t ever get the land to do so – he is always outbid by woolworths and coles protecting their monopoly.

I think he should open a supabarn at somewhere like Downer shops. (Too late for Downer – they are getting units instead of shops too.)

But I can see a small supabarn working well as a suburban shop. Parking would be the only issue. But Downer had a fair few carparks.

The Giralang shops were deliberately run down over a period of several years, yet the rents to business owners continued to increase thus making the business not viable.

The supermarket, newsagent and tavern closed within months of each other – in domino fashion.

It was a deliberate ploy by the site owner – and he has been lobbying furiously for years to get his preferred development approved and built.

Giralang residents have been screwed.

In the end it comes down to commercial realities, the viability of the shops, and the potential return to the site owners from selling/renting the retail space.

While yes it would be nice if every suburb had viable shopping centres, experience has shown that it’s just not possible, particularly for those sites that are not serviced by a major road.

Be happy that any development is being proposed, get behind it, and most importantly shop there once it opens!

Also, I question any person who has the time to advocate for such organisations, go help feed the homeless or something.

neanderthalsis1:45 pm 01 Apr 08

Thumper,
it’s not environmentally viable to have shops within walking distance of where people live.

The greenhouse gas emissions of an overweight middle aged man on a 10 min round trip walk to the shops for milk is equal to the emissions from running 3 HQ Kingswoods with 253ci engines on leaded fuel with added nastiness for 2 years.

We should all be encouraged to drive our Prius to the nearest corporately owned (westfield) multiplex and buy all our groceries in excessive packaging and packed in plastic bags.

Always big money to be made by selling of retail space in the centre of established suburbs.

Aye there’s the rub.

Of course whilst the Territory plan might allow the apparently easy conversion of retail to residential, I bet if you tried to run a business from your front room with a couple of car parks on the front lawn – there would be a world of bureaucracy to slow you down.

With energy taxes probably around the corner it seems insane to be getting rid of local shopping precincts. That said it highlights a real problem for the ACT. If cars become unaffordable everyday transport, how will this place work at all.

The guy from the Giralang Residents Association called equated the Giralang shops (in their current, closed down, graffitied state) with Baghdad. That was interesting.

swamiOFswank8:26 am 01 Apr 08

Oh, and Thumper, it was the developers who raped Latham with the Stanhope mob as the accomplice. And what government planning dept in this day and age doesn’t check that a development a)fits adequately onto the land, and b)has the provision of hot water ??

swamiOFswank8:23 am 01 Apr 08

I don’t know whether or not you’ve seen the “Latham Shops” but what used to be a neat little centre with a supermarket, butcher, post office, hairdresser, chemist, newsagency, Chinese restaurant, physio, and school uniform shop now masquerades as shops…the post office and school uniform shop merged into one and took up occupancy of the old servo. The supermarket is now a sorry excuse for anything – my pantry has more food in stock (and what corner store doesn’t have Tim Tams??). The supermarket itself is built in the middle of the planning disaster ghetto (the one where they forgot to install hot water systems) and the whole area is prone to vandalism, hoons and general povo destruction. It’s a disgrace.

I hope to god they don’t do the same to Giralang. It’d just be an insult to the residents. Better to have no shops than a crap-arsed supermarket that doesnt’ even stock Tim Tams…built in a DIY ghetto.

Hackett and Watson shops do really well, despite being so close to Dickson woolies.

Lots of people would prefer to park right next to the shop – for free, and do their shopping quickly, without queuing up. And heaps of people walk to the shops too.

Is there a demand for shops in Giralang? Why did the previous shops close?

Deadmandrinking6:32 pm 31 Mar 08

Whilst I do like the idea of local shops (although IGA’s prices leave something to be desired when you’re a student), in Canberra, it’s just not feasible to have anything more than a little complex servicing every three or four suburbs. Most people have cars in Canberra and with the current state of housing, it’s better to just turn them into apartment blocks etc. as papdoc said.

Kaleen does have a pretty decent shop now, but Giralang is actually quite a well designed suburb with all amenities (shops, doctor, school) are within walking distance with dedicated underpasses. It would be a shame not to encourage usage of these what with trying to reduce car usage in Canberra. I don’t live in Giralang myself, but I can see the appeal in having this setup where you don’t have to get in your car to get the milk and bread.

From what I can work out, I don’t think this is about wanting an IGA.

I think it stems from the Carnell decsion to convert business leases to 99 or 999 years thus giving business leaseholders a windfall.

The problem is that like Latham the allocation of “retail” as part of the re-development is not viable, not intended to be viable and is just trying to meet the letter not the spirit of the territory plan. I note the report suggests the there is no objection with the number or type of residential development.

If the ACT Government wanted to rezone several suburban shopping centres as residential, that would be fine, but one assumes the leases would be up for auction or at least some method of sharing the windfall gain with the community would occur.

Basically the shops were built with a market in mind and probably were only expected to be viable for 25 years (ie about the late 90’s) the return on initial investment etc was probably made long ago. The change in rules about business leases has effectively given lots of the owners of suburban shops the opportunity to convert functioning shops into dives so they can be redeveloped for the profit of the existng owner and the developer, the Government (as it likes doing in this town) looks away and takes the stamp-duty and ongoing rates.

The Giralang shops are a waste of space and should have been demolished years ago. With Kaleen having 2 sets of shops and Belconnen Mall and Gungahlin Shopping Center all being within 15 minutes of the place, there’s no point in sticking an IGA there.

Get rid of them, build some apartments and get over it I say!

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