Businesses on struggle street

Oxford Street’s lack of parking and roadway atmosphere has plagued multiple businesses along the popular retail strip, driving tenants to close shop.

The closure of Thai restaurant Rambutan has been widely publicised, but it is only one of several businesses which have recently shut their doors along the Golden Mile.

The owner of Aussie Boys, Ken Holmes, said he has seen several other stores close in the last few months including the Italian restaurant Chianti, the fashion and crafts store Bazaar of Wonders, and Zen Thai restaurant which he said was open only for a few weeks.

Other closures include The Grumpy Baker and Celebrity Wigs. Each of the shops were located on Oxford St between Crown and Flinders Streets.

Licensee for the real estate agency Oxford Commercial, Marc Marano, said the current demise of business along Oxford St is evident.

He said landlords have to understand that values have halved from $3,000 to $4,000 a square metre, to between $1,000 and $1,500.

Mr Marano said the street’s depressed business climate, caused in part by a lack of parking, has affected both restaurants and retail stores.

“Although Clover Moore has made every effort to drive cars out of the area by putting bike-lanes, that doesn’t really help retailers.”

He also said the opening of the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre in 2004 had a significant impact. Major retailers slowly moved their business to the mall and this in turn affected restaurants.

Co-owner of The Record Store, Stephan Györy, believes the expansion of Oxford St from a four-lane to a six-lane road in 2003 and 2004 destroyed the street’s ambience.

“They’ve turned it from a high-street into a high-way,” he said.

“If you’re sitting outside of a café and a bus is zooming past your face, a metre away at sixty, you’re not going to go back to that café.”

Mr Györy said local and state governments are failing to adequately advertise the street to tourists. He said visitors are advised to go see the Harbour and Manly instead of touring Darlinghurst and its small bars.

Sydney’s Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, said the council is committed to the strip.

“We’ve spent more than $45 million dollars upgrading the Oxford Street shopping strip from Hyde Park to Centennial Park over the past seven years,” she said.

She referred to the recent establishment of 16 creative enterprises spaces at affordable rents, which is an attempt to bring back a creative feel to the strip. She said those venues are attracting an audience for local cafes, restaurants and bars.

Mr Marano is optimistic Oxford St’s current fortunes can be turned around. He said the district was previously dominated by emerging stores before high-end fashion shops moved in. He expects the street to be rejuvenated by welcoming low-profile retailers and up-and-coming designers.

Oxford St also enjoys the benefits of being close to the city’s centre.

“No city in the world has a beautiful retail strip like [Oxford St], that is a kilometre from the CBD that doesn’t thrive. No major city in the world,” Mr Marano said.

Other shop owners are less confident.

“A number of shops here will be gone in the next 12 months,” Mr Holmes said. He said Aussie Boys, which has been on the street for nearly 30 years, may be one of them.

By Dominic Dietrich