Oxford Street at risk of becoming a "retail white elephant": Max Raine

In the light of high commercial vacancy rates along the retail strip on Sydney’s Oxford Street, stretching from Hyde Park to Bondi Junction, Raine & Horne’s Max Raine has weighed in with support for calls to the Sydney City Council to take over management from Woollahra Council.

Raine, a local property owner and recognised industry member, said that the growing vacancies are affecting Oxford Street’s name as a leading fashion and lifestyle destination, and that it’s time boundaries were changed to bring it under the financial clout of the City of Sydney.

“As a lifetime resident of Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, I am truly gutted that this famous retail strip, which is also home to many heritage buildings such as the Paddington Town Hall and Victoria Barracks, has fallen on such hard times,” said Raine.

“Oxford Street is at the risk of becoming a retail white elephant like Newcastle’s once bustling Hunter Street, and it would be a significant blight on the history of this great city if this iconic strip is not restored to its past glories.”

A Property Observer survey in February 2013 found 35 out of 198 storefronts on the north side of Paddington’s Oxford Street shopping strip – between Barcom Street and Jersey Road – were empty. Some were recorded as having been unoccupied for more than six months.

Notably, Darlinghurst's Oxford Square retail centre was listed with $70 million-plus hopes in April 2013.

Then, in February this year, a 1,946 square metre retail building was offered up for sale in the Paddington section of Oxford Street.

And in April 2014, Sydney's oldest gay venue on Oxford Street, Darlinghurst hit the market.

The call comes a few months after a comprehensive Sydney Morning Herald feature on Oxford Street, which noted a mass retail and restaurant exodus from Oxford Street had the empty shops numbering 29 in the City of Sydney, 41 in Woollahra and 19 in Waverley. Paddington, bearing the brunt of the storm, clocks up 46, a vacancy rate of just over 18 per cent. In the area immediately surrounding Jersey Road, it is as much as 65 per cent.

The Activate Oxford St draft proposal commissioned by Woollahra Municipal Council was welcomed by Raine, although he notes it misses the problem of a parking station.

“The report suggests ways to improve the struggling street, such as creating new uses for vacant shops, the introduction of street theatre activities, as well as implementing improvements to the operation of Paddington Markets, however what the strip needs more of is parking, to attract shoppers back to the boutiques, cafes, bars and restaurants,” he said.

“It’s pretty simple, if you can’t park, then you can’t shop and there are some properties along Oxford Street that would make perfect sites for additional parking, including the site of the underutilised St Matthias Church on the corner of Oxford Street and Moore Park Road.”
Improvements in parking infrastructure will be a costly exercise, which is part of the reason the Sydney City Council is being called upon to control the strip.

“Woollahra Council has done its best but Oxford Street desperately needs the financial clout of Sydney City Council to help return it to its former glories,” he said, promising his support behind any representations to the New South Wales Local Government Minister Paul Toole around boundary changes.

Photo of Oxford Street Mall courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.