Creative future for town centre?

Business leaders say the future of Blenheim’s central business district is up to locals, as two more national big box retailers move to Westwood Business Park.

With Bed Bath and Beyond and Number One Shoes/Hannah’s shifting from central Blenheim to Westwood, plus rumblings the shopping centre is attracting residents new to Marlborough being positive signs for the shopping centre, central Blenheim will lose two high-profile shop fronts.

Marlborough Chamber of Commerce Executive Officer Kylie Cornelius and Harcourts’ Sales & Marketing Consultant David Searle say they see positives and negatives to the continued moves of chain stores out to Westwood but agree that it is down to Marlburians to make the CBD what they want it to be.

“It’s good to see the big box retailers can see value in committing to our region by moving to these new stores but on the flip side of that, we don’t need it at the effective expense of our CBD”, says Kylie. “There are murmurs of more big box retailers and national chains coming into the region, and while we welcome them for consumers whether in town or Westwood, Blenheim has some amazing local independent businesses to support.

“Our CBD should be a vibrant and bustling place for locals and visitors alike to visit so consideration needs to be made around making sure that our CBD stays relevant for the likes of big stores like Farmers, so that their foot traffic benefits our independent retailers like Thomas’s and Mitchell Sports just steps away.”

David says that seeing shops move out of the region is negative, but not many are with the reason behind many moves being the ability to upsize. However, it has left opportunities in “some very cool spaces that have the potential to be really influential”.

“Those big box retailers are obviously seeing the value in remaining in Marlborough and moving to places with more floor space, so they’re successful locally and Westwood is allowing for upsizing and/or the building of custom spaces as we’ll see with Springlands Vet. However, those spaces leave opportunities for the community to help shape the future of central Blenheim and shape it in what we want it to be.

“It starts with supporting those shops now, giving travellers reasons to stop in central Blenheim and filling those spaces for the benefit that comes down the track.”

While working in commercial real estate, David says that residential redevelopments could help solidify Blenheim’s CBD.

“Marlborough is already renowned as a home of world-class wine, food, and restaurants, so living above a bustling CBD would give a real feeling of big city living, while using existing building stock and providing more foot traffic. It does take investment to turn those commercial to residential developments and it’s not easy to do with a range of different standards necessary, but I’d love to see more inner city second level apartment-living and be personally open to it myself.”

Kylie agrees, saying that having more occupants of all sorts in town “adds to foot traffic, has more people eating at bars and restaurants, which is the circle that all adds to the vibrancy of the town centre.

“If we can maximise office space use in town that’s great but we understand more small businesses can work from home.

"We as the Chamber can connect people, assist with business plans and encourage investment of all kinds into the CBD, and those exciting opportunities – whether local or from further afield - are very open to being here. Marlborough has a strong, collaborative start-up culture which I’ve already been astonished by three months into the role, and with risk comes reward. It’s up to our ingenuity to shape the CBD,” she added.